Endangered wild salmon infected by newly discovered viruses

Mordecai, Gideon J; Miller, Kristina M; Di Cicco, Emiliano; Schulze, Angela D; Kaukinen, Karia H; Ming, Tobi J; Li, Shaorong; Tabata, Amy; Teffer, Amy; Patterson, David A; Ferguson, Hugh W; Suttle, Curtis A

Both SPAV-1 and SPAV-2 were relatively widespread along the coast of southwestern British Columbia, in ocean caught Chinook and sockeye salmon. Currently, it is unclear what is driving differences in SPAV-1 and SPAV-2 prevalence among regions, but the virus appears to be transmitted to juvenile salmon throughout southern BC soon after they enter the ocean, a period known to be critical to their survival (Beamish et al., 2012a) . SPAV-1 was also relatively common in farmed Chinook populations. The distribution of SPAV-1 in wild Chinook populations was more localised to the west coast of Vancouver Island than SPAV-2, which was most prevalent on the east coast of Vancouver Island, near the Discovery Islands and the Johnstone Strait, and was rarely detected in sockeye salmon in northern BC and Alaska (Figure 2-figure supplement 2) .