Serum neutralization test for epidemiological studies of salmonid rhabdoviroses in France.

Abstract

Serological examination is not yet accepted as being a suitable diagnostic method for fish that are asymptomatic virus carriers. Nevertheless, encouraging preliminary results using an end-point serum neutralization test (SNT) in several French trout farm populations have demonstrated an excellent correlation between the SNT and the previously established virus histories of the tested populations. Following the isolation of infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) in France, serological screening of fish for a neutralizing antibody (NAb) to IHN was conducted on a national scale. This survey confirmed the relationship between the serum-neutralizing immune response of the fish and the presence of IHNV in a given trout farm population. Insofar as many trout populations underwent dual rhabdovirus infections with both IHNV and viral haemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV), NAbs to both viruses were also detected in the fish from such populations, often in distinct individuals. NAb-responding fish became detectable 2-3 months post-infection (pi). The number of responding fish reached a mean prevalence of 20% between 3 and 6 months pi and disappeared after 8 months. The neutralizing serum titres (NST) were considered positive at > or = 32 and 64 for VHSV and IHNV, respectively. Both the NST results and the prevalence varied greatly according to individuals, populations and the number of repeated stimuli involved in a given serum sampling series. Conversely, the thousands of sera collected from trout in virus-free farms did not display any neutralizing activity against either VHSV or IHNV.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)