Molecular Diagnosis of Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis and Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia

Abstract

The fish rhabdoviruses, infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) and viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV), cause extensive losses among salmon and trout in several areas of the world (Bootland and Leong, 1999; Smail, 1999; Wolf, 1988). Historically, IHNV was endemic among wild anadromous salmonids in the western portion of North America, but the virus has spread to stocks of cultured rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the United States, Asia and Western Europe, probably as a result of the movement of infected fish or eggs (Winton, 1991). Prior to 1989, VHSV was thought to be largely restricted to freshwater fishes in Western Europe (Wolf, 1988); however, in the last decade, VHSV has been isolated from an increasing number of free-living marine fish species in the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans (Dixon et al., 1997; Dixon, 1999; Kent et al., 1998; Meyers and Winton, 1995; Meyers et al., 1999; Mortensen et al., 1999; Smail; 2000, Takano et al., 2000). These findings have lead to the conclusion that both viruses are principally endemic among marine or anadromous fish species, but have established themselves in freshwater among cultured salmonids where their effects are most frequently observed.