The authors provide examples of emergency programmes which have been successful in eradicating or controlling certain diseases of aquatic animals. The paper is divided into four parts. The first part describes the initial isolation of viral haemorrhagic septicaemia (VHS) virus in North America in the autumn of 1988 from feral adult chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and coho salmon (O. kisutch)...

Market-sized rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss were challenged by waterborne exposure to viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV isolate of genogroup Ia). Fish were sampled at 4 stages of infection (before onset of clinical signs, clinically affected fish, mortalities and survivors) and the viral load determined in (1) internal organs, (2) muscle tissue and (3) brain and gill tissue. Virus l...

Pasteurella multocida is the primary causative agent of a range of economically important diseases in animals, including haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS), a rapidly fatal disease of ungulates. There is limited information available on the diversity of P. multocida strains that cause HS. Therefore, we determined draft genome sequences of ten disease-causing isolates and two vaccine strains and comp...

With the exception of mammals, vertebrate erythrocytes are nucleated. Nevertheless, these cells are usually considered as mere carriers of hemoglobin. In this work, however, we describe for the first time an unrecognized role of teleost red blood cells (RBCs). We found that Nk-lysin (Nkl), an antimicrobial peptide produced by NK-cells and cytotoxic T-lymphocytes, was also expressed in flatfish ...

Viral haemorrhagic septicaemia (VHS) caused by the rhabdovirus VHSV is economically the most important viral disease in European rainbow trout farming. Until 1989, this virus was mainly isolated from freshwater salmonids but in the last decade, it has also been isolated from an increasing number of free-living marine fish species. To study the genetic evolution of VHSV, the entire G gene from 7...

A number of viral haemorrhagic septicaemia (VHS) virus isolates of European marine origin were shown to be of low pathogenicity or non-pathogenic to Atlantic salmon parr by water-borne infection. A reference freshwater VHS virus isolate known to be highly pathogenic to rainbow trout was also of low pathogenicity to Atlantic salmon. Virus was detected in some mortalities, however, demonstrating ...

A total of 3,257 samples of diseased rainbow trout were examined for the presence of viruses from January 1983 to December 1987. A virus closely related to the VR 299 serotype of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus was isolated from 13 cases. An additional 7,228 viscera samples from asymptomatic fish were collected during the same period and a similar virus was isolated from 2 sites. During th...