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

Farmed Chinook salmon positive for SPAV-1 displayed pathology and symptoms consistent with disease including inflammation of the spleen and liver, as well as tubule necrosis and hyperplasia in the kidney. Clinically, salmon presented with yellow fluid on the pyloric caeca and swim bladder, pale gills with haemorrhaging on the surface, and anaemia. Wild Chinook and sockeye that tested positive for arenavirus infection, but which were clinically healthy when sampled, showed few histological lesions. In-situ hybridization revealed that arenaviruses were concentrated mainly in macrophage-like cells, melanomacrophages, red-blood cells (RBCs) and endotheliocytes ( Figure 3) . These findings are consistent with localisation of arenaviruses in mammals and snakes, although in contrast to snakes and fish, mammalian red blood cells are not nucleated so the similarity likely only extends to nucleated cells. SPAV-1 and À2 shared similar cell tropism within Chinook and sockeye salmon, respectively (Figure 3-figure supplement 1). In one out of the eight Chinook samples examined, moderate chronic-active hepatitis was reported, and staining for SPAV-1 was identified in the area affected by inflammation ( Figure 3C and D) , while in the other samples SPAV-1 was confined to reticuloendothelial cells in the liver tissue or in the sinusoids. More lesions were observed in dead farmed Chinook, where disease progression is more advanced. Our observations indicate that arenaviruses are replicating in red-blood cells, and occur in the macrophages and leukocytes that consume the infected cells. Moreover, the observed pathological changes in arenavirus-infected fish, including anaemia, and lesions in the gills, kidney and liver would be expected for viruses that infect red-blood cells. These results are the first empirical evidence for arenavirus infection in fish, and suggest that SPAV, like many other arenaviruses, has the potential to be a causative agent of disease.