Abstract
The aquaculture of salmonid fishes is a multi-billion dollar industry with production over 3 million tons annually. However, infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV), which infects and kills salmon and trout, significantly reduces the revenue of the salmon farming industry. Currently, there is no effective treatment for IHNV infected fishes; therefore, early detection and depopulation of the infected fishes remain the most common practices to contain the spread of IHNV. Apart from hygiene practices in aquaculture and isolation of infected fishes, loss of fishes due to IHNV infection can also be significantly reduced through vaccination programs. In the current review, some of the diagnostic methods for IHNV, spanning from clinical diagnosis to cell culture, serological and molecular methods are discussed in detail. In addition, some of the most significant candidate vaccines for IHNV are also extensively discussed, particularly the DNA vaccines.
Highlights
Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) is the causative agent for infectious hematopoietic necrosis in salmonid fishes such as salmon and trout, which represent some of the most important species in aquaculture
Atlantic salmon was recruited as an animal model to study the efficacy of IHNV DNA vaccine, in which they were greatly protected from IHNV immersion and cohabitation challenges
Plasmid DNA delivered via intramuscular injection into muscle cells exists as an extra-chromosomal DNA, and its integration into the host genome was reported to be negligible (Kanellos et al, 1999; Ledwith et al, 2000; Nichols et al, 1995). To further mitigate this issue, Alonso et al (2003) developed a DNA vaccine based on the G gene of IHNV, controlled by the interferon regulatory factor 1A promoter originated from rainbow trout to prevent its expression in human
Summary
Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) is the causative agent for infectious hematopoietic necrosis in salmonid fishes such as salmon and trout, which represent some of the most important species in aquaculture. IHNV was first isolated from sockeye salmon (Wingfield, Fryer & Pilcher, 1969) It is an enveloped, negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus which belongs to the family of Rhabdoviridae, under the genus Novirhabdovirus with a distinct shape of bullet-like structure. The N protein interacts with the viral RNA genome to form the ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex, which coils into a bullet-shaped structure. Current review focuses on the past and recent advances in the diagnosis and vaccine development against IHNV. To the best of our knowledge, there are only three review articles focusing on IHNV (Alonso & Leong, 2013; Dixon et al, 2016; Nishizawa & Yoshimizu, 2017) for the past 10 years. None has focused on the diagnosis and vaccine development for IHNV
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