Investigation of Piscine Orthoreovirus (PRV) in the development of disease

Fisheries and Oceans Canada funded $46,548 from the Partnership Fund in 2016 towards this investigative research at the University of Washington. The goal is to determine if piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) impacts salmon health and leads (or contributes) to heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) and erythrocytic inclusion body syndrome (EIBS) in salmon. If this is the case, the researchers seek to identify mechanisms to explain how the benign virus transforms to cause disease. Without causing disease, PRV exists in healthy fish of the salmonid species throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, in farmed Atlantic salmon in British Columbia and wild Pacific salmon in both Canadian and US waters. PRV previously failed to induce disease in a laboratory challenge of Atlantic, Sockeye, and Chinook salmon from the North Pacific. However, research has associated PRV with HSMI in farmed Norwegian Atlantic salmon. The research includes laboratory challenges of juvenile Atlantic and Coho salmon with PRV and compares consequences of infection when salmon are exposed to PRV obtained from healthy donor fish relative to diseased (HSMI or EIBS) donors.

Project Number: PAC2016.5
Year: 2016
Partner: University of Washington
Principal Investigator(s): Kerry Naish
Eco-region: Pacific