DAO 36:159-161 (1999)  -  doi:10.3354/dao036159

ABSTRACT: The disease amyotrophia causes serious morbidity and mortality in juvenile abalones at several hatcheries in Japan. The etiology of the disease has not been established; however, a filtrable agent has been associated with the disease. In the present study, a virus was isolated in a primary culture of abalone hemocytes from Japanese black abalones Nordotis discus discus histopathologically diagnosed to be affected with amyotrophia in 6 different prefectures. However, pathogenicity of the virus was not confirmed in a transmission experiment with juvenile black abalones, while a filtered homogenate prepared from the same batch of affected abalones reproduced the disease.

KEY WORDS: Abalone · Amyotrophia · Abalone virus · Hemocyte culture