Artificial transmission to and susceptibility of Puget Sound fish to viral erythrocytic necrosis (VEN)

In Puget Sound, Wash., the incidence of viral erythrocytic necrosis (VEN) varied geographically from 0 to 17% in chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) and from 4 to 59% in Pacific herring (Clupea harengus pallasi). The disease was experimentally transmitted by intraperitoneal injection to chum, pink (O. gorbuscha), coho (O. kisutch), chinook (O. tshawytscha), sockeye (O. nerka), and Atlantic (Salmo salar) salmon, and rainbow (S. gairdneri), brown (S. trutta), and brook (Salvelinus fontinalis) trout. The disease was transmitted to chum salmon and brook trout by waterborne virus. Virus obtained from herring was experimentally transmitted into chum salmon by intraperitoneal injection. Key words: viral erythrocytic necrosis, fish disease, transmission