Heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) caused by piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) and pancreas disease (PD) caused by salmonid alphavirus (SAV) are among the most prevalent viral diseases of Atlantic salmon farmed in Norway. There are limited data about the impact of disease in farmed salmon on wild salmon populations. Therefore, the prevalence of PRV and SAV in returning salmon caught in six sea sites was determined using real-time RT-PCR analyses. Of 419 salmon tested, 15.8% tested positive for PRV, while none were positive for SAV. However, scale reading revealed that 10% of the salmon had escaped from farms. The prevalence of PRV in wild salmon (8%) was significantly lower than in farm escapees (86%), and increased with fish length (proxy for age). Sequencing of the S1 gene of PRV from 39 infected fish revealed a mix of genotypes. The observed increase in PRV prevalence with fish age and the lack of phylogeographic structure of the virus could be explained by virus transmission in the feeding areas. Our results highlight the need for studies about the prevalence of PRV and other pathogens in Atlantic salmon in its oceanic phase. Disease outbreaks in salmon farms may lead to increased infection and disease risks at neighbouring farms and in wild fish populations, and there is an increasing public concern of disease impacting wild salmon populations in Norway (Sv asand et al., 2017). Data are collected annually on the frequency and geographical distribution of disease outbreaks in fish farms (Hjeltnes et al., 2017). Correlating such data from regions differing in farming intensities and disease profiles with pathogen prevalence in local wild salmon populations would thus help to address this concern. However, pathogen prevalence data alone as an indicator of infection pressure have
----------------------------------------------------This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.