Glycoprotein from Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis Virus (IHNV) Induces Protective Immunity against Five IHNV Types

Abstract

Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) is a fish pathogen that kills young salmon and trout. Outbreaks of the disease among hatchery-reared fish are a problem in the northwestern USA from northern California to Alaska. At least five biochemical types and several strains of differing host specificity of IHNV exist. Any vaccine developed to immunize fish must be able to elicit a response that will neutralize all strains of IHNV. This report shows that a single type of IHNV can induce a protective immune response in vivo to the five biochemical types of IHNV and indicates that, of the IHNV isolates examined, there is at least one common major neutralization epitope. Therefore, a vaccine developed against this common neutralization epitope will provide cross-protective immunity against these IHNV variants.