Two viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) isolates, VHSV-KR-CJA and VHSV-KR-YGH, were isolated from viral hemorrhagic septicemia disease outbreaks in flounder farms in South Korea. The VHSV-KR-CJA isolate was isolated from a flounder farm with high mortality (80%), while the VHSV-KR-YGH isolate was isolated from a flounder farm with low mortality (15%), suggesting that these isolates differ in virulence. The virulence of these isolates was evaluated in juvenile flounder via intraperitoneal injection. Consistent with their virulence in the field, mortality data revealed that the VHSV-KR-CJA isolate was highly pathogenic (cumulative mortality of 80%), while the VHSV-KR-YGH isolate was less pathogenic in flounder (cumulative mortality of 20%). To characterize the genotypes of these viruses, the full open reading frames (ORFs) encoding nucleoprotein N, phosphoprotein P, matrix protein M, glycoprotein G, nonstructural viral protein NV, and polymerase L of these viruses were sequenced and analyzed. Sequence analysis revealed that both isolates are genetically very similar (identical amino acid sequences for P, M, NV, and L and > 99.7 and 99.8% amino acid sequence identity for N and G, respectively). Phylogenetic analysis indicated that both of these viruses belong to the Genotype IVa group, suggesting that they originated from a common ancestral virus. The low pathogenicity VHSV strain may potentially evolve to become a more pathogenic strain through only a few nucleotide substitutions. Further functional analyses of mutations in VHSV genes are necessary to identify factors that determine VHSV pathogenicity in flounder.
KEY WORDS: Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus · VHSV · Virulence · Flounder
Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherDis Aquat Org 101: [105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114] 2012 Phylogenetic analyses of the N-and G-encoding genes of VHSV have identified 4 main genotypes (I to IV), with several subgroups within Genotypes I (minimum Ia to Ie) and IV (IVa and IVb) (Snow et al. 1999, Einer-Jensen et al. 2004, Lumsden et al. 2007). These genotypes reflect a largely geographic rather than a species-specific distribution. Genotype I includes a wide range of viruses originating from freshwater rainbow trout farms in continental Europe (Thiéry et al. 2002, Einer-Jensen et al. 2004) and a large number of isolates originating from marine species in the Baltic Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat, and English Channel (Dixon et al. 1997, Einer-Jensen et al. 2004, Snow et al. 2004. Genotype II includes a limited number of VHSV isolates recovered from the Baltic Sea (Snow et al. 2004). Genotype III includes isolates from the North Sea (Einer-Jensen et al. 2004, Snow et al. 2004, North Atlantic (López-Vázquez et al. 2006), and from seawater-reared rainbow trout in western Norway (Dale et al. 2009). Genotype IV consists of viruses from the Pacific coast and Atlantic coast of North America as well as isolates from the Great Lakes region of North America and from ...