Response of salmonid fish to artificial infection with chum salmon virus

Abstract

In the fall of 1978, a reovirus was isolated from normal-appearing adult chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta ) returning to the Tokushibetsu Hatchery in Hokkaido, Japan (Winton et al 1981). The chum salmon virus (CSW) was recovered in the chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ) embryo cell line (CHSE-214) where it replicated at 15-20 C, producing foci of syncytia in the monolayer. Electron microscopy revealed icosahedral particles, 75 nm in diameter, with a double capsid. The virus was not inactivated by chloroform or inhibited by fluorodeoxyuridine. It was unstable at 56 C, did not hemagglutinate human type 0 erythrocytes, and had a density of 1.33 g/ml in CsCl . The virus was not neutralized by antiserum against infectious pancreatic necrosis virus or mammalian reovirus serotypes 1, 2 or 3 (Winton 1981). Electrophoretic analysis showed the genome was composed of three large, three medium, and five small segments of double stranded RNA (dsRNA) that ranged from 0.37-2.5 x 10% molecular weight. The virions contained five major structural proteins and several minor proteins (Winton et al 1983).