DAO 26:117-124 (1996)  -  doi:10.3354/dao026117

Disease-free Atlantic salmon Salmo salar post-smolts (mean weight 87 g) were maintained in a flow-through ozone-sterilized sea water system at 12 to 15°C and ambient salinity. One hundred fish were intraperitoneally inoculated with 0.1 ml of salmon pancreas disease virus (SPDV) of a titre 10⁷ TCID₅₀ ml^-1. Fifty fin-clipped uninoculated smolts were placed in-contact in the same tank. One hundred fish were kept in another tank as controls and were inoculated with a lysate from un-infected Chinook salmon embryo (CHSE-214) cell cultures. Blood and tissues for virus isolation, serum neutralisation tests and histological examination were taken at intervals up to 42 days post inoculation (dpi). Virus was re-isolated from SPDV inoculated smolts at 7, 10, 15 and 21 dpi and in-contact fish at 14 and 21 dpi. Neutralising antibody was first detected in the inoculated fish at 10 dpi and in the in-contact fish 11 d later. Clinical signs and microscopic lesions indistinguishable from naturally occurring pancreas disease (PD) were observed in SPDV inoculated and in-contact smolts. No lesions were detected in the negative controls. These results provide strong evidence that SPDV is the etiologic agent of PD in farmed Atlantic salmon in Ireland.

Pancreas disease · Experimental · Pathology · SPDV · Atlantic salmon smolts