The UVC irradiation doses necessary for a 99.9% (3-log) inactivation of 3 different fish pathogenic viruses diluted in freshwater/seawater and wastewater from a fish processing plant were determined. The results showed that both infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV) and viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV) were very sensitive to UVC irradiation, showing a 3-log reduction of infectivity in freshwater of 33 ± 3.5 and 7.9 ± 1.5 J m -2 , respectively, while that of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) was substantially higher, 1188 ± 57 J m -2. Using ISAV as a model, a comparison of the effect of UVC irradiation on virus isolation versus reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed that considerably higher UVC doses, depending on the length of the amplified product, were necessary to abolish RT-PCR detection of viral RNA.
KEY WORDS: UVC inactivation · Infectious salmon anaemia virus · Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus · Viral hemorrhagic septicaemia virus
Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherDis Aquat Org 48: [1][2][3][4][5] 2001 action are responsible for virus inactivation. The effect of UV on inactivation of micro-organisms depends on the dose, which is defined as intensity times exposure time. Infectious salmon anaemia is observed in Atlantic salmon during the seawater period. However, many hatcheries add seawater to their incoming freshwater for pH stabilisation; therefore the disease has probably also been found in hatcheries (Nylund et al. 1999). In Europe, viral haemorrhagic septicaemia mainly occurs in freshwater-farmed rainbow trout, but has also been found in marine fish, and there are probably reservoirs of VHSV in marine fish species (Mortensen et al. 1999). Infectious pancreatic necrosis in farmed Atlantic salmon occurs frequently in fry, but also in smolts shortly after transfer to seawater.There are regulatory requirements for treatment of wastewater from hatcheries and salmon abattoirs. The water should be cleared of pathogens as infectious agents may pose a risk for farming downstream of the outlet or for marine farming. However, wastewater, especially from abattoirs, has a high content of proteins and particulate materials that may influence the effect of the disinfectants.The purpose of the present work is to examine the effect of UVC on the viability of the ISAV, but also for VHSV and IPNV, both in water resembling incoming water to hatcheries and in wastewater from salmon abattoirs. Two methods -virus isolation in cell culture and RT-PCR -were compared in order to determine the occurrence of ISAV following UVC irradiation.
MATERIALS AND METHODSViruses and cells. The ISAV strain Glesvaer/2/90 was used (Dannevig et al. 1995). This virus was cultivated in salmon head kidney cells (SHK-1) using Leibovitz L-15 medium supplemented with foetal bovine serum (5%), glutamine (4 mM), 2-mercaptoethanol (40 µM), and gentamicin (50 µg ml -1 ) as the growth medium. The VHSV, Voldbjerg strain, DK9592B, was grown in blue ...