Studies with an experimental model for pancreas disease of Atlantic salmon Salmo Salar L.

This paper describes reproducing pancreas disease in Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., parr with intraperitoneal inoculation of homogenized kidney and spleen taken From affected fish. Pancreatic necrosis and cardiomyopathy changes were induced consistently in all experimental groups. A time-course study demonstrated that pancreatic changes occurred as early as 4 days post inoculation and a repair process was evident in some fish on day 7 post inoculation. Heart lesions were first observed on day 5 post inoculation and increased in prevalence and severity as the experiment continued. Both types of lesion were serially passaged. and passively transmitted to fish cohabited with inoculated parr. The incidence of these changes was unaffected by passage of the infective homogenate through a 0.2 μ filter. The homogenate was inactivated after treatment with chloroform. Passive immunization with serum from recovered farmed salmon protected parr against challenge. It is suggested that pancreas disease is caused by a virus with a lipid envelope.