Fish viral infections in northwest of Spain

During a three years survey, a total of 149 samples from 20 farms of rainbow trout, salmon and turbot were examined for the presence of virus with the purpose to study the viral infections affecting cultured fish and their incidence in the fishfarms of Northwestern Spain. Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) was the only viral agent isolated from salmonid fish. Fry and fingerlings of trout showed the highest infection rate (24%). This virus was not detected in broodstock or embryonated eggs, although it was isolated from ovaric and seminal fluids and from juvenile carriers. From 24 samples of salmon analyzed, IPNV was only detected in one sample of juveniles. Examination of turbot led the isolation of a new virus belonging to the reoviridae family, which affected to the ongrowing population. All of the IPNV tested belonged to serotype Sp regardless of the origin of the trout stocks. During the monitorization of imported embryonated eggs, no virus was detected from any of the samples. However, in some case, IPNV was isolated when testing the fry obtained in our laboratory from those samples of imported eggs. Our findings indicate that: i) the analysis of fingerlings increase the probability to detect viral infections allowing us an optimal control of importations, and ii) most of the viral infections of fish take place in the own fish farms. The detection of mixed viral and bacterial infections emphasize the importance of carrying out an integral microbiological analysis to determine the causal agent(s) of fish mortalities.