Publication Abstract

Isolation and characterisation of rhabdovirus from wild common bream (Abramis brama) and roach (Rutilis rutilis) and from farmed brown trout (Salmo trutta) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in Northern Ireland

Isolation and characterisation of rhabdovirus from wild common bream (Abramis brama) and roach (Rutilis rutilis) and from farmed brown trout (Salmo trutta) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in Northern Ireland

H. Rowley, D.A. Graham, S. Campbell, K. Way, D.M. Stone, W.L. Curran and D. Bryson

Rhabdovirus was isolated from wild common bream (Abramis brama) during a disease outbreak with high mortality in Northern Ireland (NI) during May 1998. Rhabdovirus was also isolated at the same time from healthy farmed rainbow (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) on the same stretch of river and 11 months later from healthy wild bream and roach (Rutilis rutilis) in the same river system. Experimental intra-peritoneal infection of bream and mirror carp (Cyprinus carpio var specularis) with two of these isolates produced low mortality rates of £ 12%. Serological testing of these isolates by both virus neutralization and ELISA indicated that they were antigenically closely related to pike fry rhabdovirus (PFRV). However, sequence comparison of a 550 base pair segment of the viral glycoprotein generated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) indicated a high degree of similarity (>96%) between these isolates and a previous NI isolate made in 1984, a 1997 isolate from bream in the Republic of Ireland and an earlier European isolate from roach. In contrast, divergence between these isolates and PFRV was >20%, indicating that these viruses belong to two distinct genogroups.

Reference:

H. Rowley, D.A. Graham, S. Campbell, K. Way, D.M. Stone, W.L. Curran and D. Bryson, 2001. Isolation and characterisation of rhabdovirus from wild common bream (Abramis brama) and roach (Rutilis rutilis) and from farmed brown trout (Salmo trutta) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in Northern Ireland. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, 48(1): 7-15.

H. Rowley, D.A. Graham, S. Campbell, K. Way*, D.M. Stone*, W.L. Curran and D. Bryson

Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, 48(1): 7-15