Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Virus in Scottish Atlantic Salmon Farms, 1996–2001

The rapid growth of aquaculture has provided opportunities for the emergence of diseases. Programs designed to monitor these pathogens are useful for analysis of regional variation and trends, provided methods are standardized. Data from an official monitoring program were used to analyze the emerge...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Emerging Infectious Diseases
Main Authors: Alexander G. Murray, Corina D. Busby, David W. Bruno
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2003
Subjects:
R
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3201/eid0904.020311
https://doaj.org/article/b2c14b59770444ecb5bcc5c886542440
Description
Summary:The rapid growth of aquaculture has provided opportunities for the emergence of diseases. Programs designed to monitor these pathogens are useful for analysis of regional variation and trends, provided methods are standardized. Data from an official monitoring program were used to analyze the emergence of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus in Scottish salmon farms from 1996 to 2001. An annual increase in the prevalence of this virus was found in saltwater (10%) and freshwater sites (2% to 3%), with a much faster increase (6.5%) in Shetland’s freshwater sites. No significant increase in the virus was detected in the marine farms of southern mainland Scotland. However, the virus had become very prevalent at marine sites and was almost ubiquitous in Shetland by 2001, and thus the prevalence of this virus at marine sites may be underestimated. Because several diseases have emerged or are emerging in fish farming, aquaculture surveillance programs represent a rich potential source of data on emerging diseases.