Outbreak of ranavirus infection in sheatfish, Silurus glanis (L.), in Poland

Ranavirus was detected in adult sheatfish, with clinical signs, on a Polish fish farm in February. Farm isolates induced a strong cytopathic effect in vitro and were identified by electron microscopy and PCR amplification of the ranavirus specific gene fragment. Restriction analysis with the Acc I enzyme showed that isolated ranaviruses were different from the epizootic heamatopoietic necrosis virus (EHNV). We sequenced a fragment of the major capsid protein (MCP) gene and found that isolates were similar to other strains of ranaviruses, available in GenBank.