Diseases of Aquatic Organisms · 1999 · 109 citations · 0 references
Life SciencesInfectious DiseasesMicrobiologyMedical MicrobiologyMolecular VirologyVirologyAnimal Infectious DiseasesAquatic Animal Infectious DiseasesAquatic VirusesFish Disease DiagnosisFish Disease EtiologyViral ZoonosesAquatic Animal Pathogen DiagnosticsAquatic Animal VirologyEpidemiological DiagnosisFish Disease PathogenesisFish VirologyInfectious Salmon AnemiaMarine Fish DiseasesViral Disease Surveillance
Haemorrhagic kidney syndrome (HKS), a serious disease affecting Atlantic salmon on the east coast of Canada, was determined to be caused by infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV) through the isolation of the pathogen on the SHK-1 (salmon head kidney) cell line and confirmation by ISAV-specific immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In addition, the defining histopathology of HKS could be reproduced following the injection of material that rendered challenged fish ISAV-positive by cell culture in the absence of any other detectable pathogen. Preliminary nucleotide sequence comparison does not suggest any direct epidemiological connection between the Canadian and Norwegian isolates.