Adenosine is a purine nucleoside comprising a molecule of adenine attached to a ribose sugar molecule (ribofuranose) moiety via a β-N9-glycosidic bond. It has been previously demonstrated that adenosine can inhibit the replication of vaccinia virus in the monkey kidney BSC-40 cells. In this study, we investigated whether adenosine can interfere with the replication of grouper iridovirus (GIV) in grouper kidney (GK) cells. Our datas showed that the replication of GIV was inhibited by adenosine in GK cells. In RT-PCR assay, we found that the pre-treatment with adenosine resulted in a delayed expression of the early and late genes of GIV in the GK cells.