Herpes-type virus diseases of marine organisms

Abstract

SynopsisHerpesviruses and viruses having the typical morphological and replicative characteristics of the genus Herpesvirus from marine animals have been reviewed. These animals include one teleost fish, two reptiles, one pelecypod mollusc and an arthropod. With the exception of the arthropod, all descriptions of virus-related diseases were from animals maintained under artificial culture conditions and a common theme relates temperature, stress and crowding to outbreaks of disease. The significance of these observations in relation to the possible evolution of the herpesvirus group is discussed.

Viral diseases of marine invertebrates

“…Species accepted by the ICTV as members of the Herpesviridae are all from mammals and birds, but this committee notes that herpesviruses also occur in coldblooded vertebrates and invertebrates (Matthews, 1982;Buchanan & Richards, 1982). Several herpeslike viruses cause disease in marine and freshwater fish (McAllister, 1979), and a herpeslike virus has been found in Thraustochytrium sp., an estuarine saprolegnid fungus (Kazama & Schornstein, 1972).…”

Visualization of viruses in tumors of rainbow smelt Osmerus mordax

“…In most cases herpesviruses are thought to acquire their envelope layers at the inner nuclear membrane (Buchanan & Richards 1982), and to be released from the cell through cytoplasmic vacuoles (Buchanan & Madeley 1978). In our study, many of these vacuoles were apparently produced by an enlarged Golgi body.…”

“…Herpesvirus infections can be systemic and are usually latent, becoming active under stressful conditions (Buchanan & Richards 1982). Many fish herpesviruses are associated with proliferations of the epidermis (Hedrick & Sano 1989), and in many species the highest prevalences of tumors occur during spawning (Anders 1989), as did the tumors we described in rainbow smelt.…”

Virus‐like particles in the fish parasite Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Ciliophora)

“…Polygonal VLP have been reported in several groups of marine animals (Buchanan & Richards 1982) and eukaryotic algae (Dodds 1979). However, it is not possible to classify the VLP of /.…”