Publication Abstract

VHSV came from the marine environment: clues from literature or just redherrings?

P.F. Dixon

Viral haemorrhagic septicaemia (VHS) was for many yearsfound only in freshwater fish, primarily the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchusmykiss), but the causative virus (VHSV) has now been isolated from anincreasing number of marine fish species. The marine fish may have beeninfected by virus from infected freshwater fish passing from rivers intothe sea, but there is also the possibility that marine fish were theinitial hosts of the virus, and it was passed from a marine reser-voirto the freshwater environment by the feeding of marine fish to rainbowtrout. Much of the latter hypothesis is speculation. However, the earlyliterature on the disease provides firmer ground to support that hypothesis;that literature is reviewed.

Reference:

P.F. Dixon, 1999. VHSV came from the marine environment: clues from literature or just redherrings? Bulletin of the European Association of Fish Pathologists,19(2): 60-65