Nonvirulent Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus (ISAV-HPR0) Not Detectable in Eggs or Progeny of Infected Captive Atlantic Salmon Brood

Abstract

The potential for infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV)—an internationally regulated pathogen of salmon—to transmit vertically from parent to offspring is currently unclear. While the highly virulent ISAV phenotype known as ISAV-HPRΔ has been observed intra-ova, evidence for vertical transmission of the avirulent ISAV phenotype known as ISAV-HPR0 is lacking. In this study, we identified ISAV-HPR0-infected Atlantic salmon broodstock during spawning within a government research recirculating aquaculture facility using qPCR. Eggs and milt from infected brood were used to initiate 16 unique family dam-sire crosses from which 29–60 fertilized eggs per cross were screened for ISAV using qPCR (limit of detection ~100 virus genome copies/egg). A portion of eggs (~300) from one family cross was hatched and further reared in biosecure containment and periodically screened for ISAV by gill clipping over a 2-year period. ISAV was not detected in any of the 781 eggs screened from 16 family crosses generated by infected brood, nor in 870 gill clips periodically sampled from the single-family cohort raised for 2 years in biocontainment. Based on these findings, we conclude that ISAV-HPR0 has a limited likelihood for vertical parent-to-offspring transmission in cultured Atlantic salmon.