Dear Alf,

You may contact the main authors of the following publication. I have read the methods section and it seems that they got the fishes from Norway.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4542343/

J Virol. 2015 Sep 15; 89(18): 9348–9367.

Published online 2015 Jul 1. doi:  10.1128/JVI.01174-15

PMCID: PMC4542343

Salmon Gill Poxvirus, the Deepest Representative of the Chordopoxvirinae

Mona C. Gjessing, a Natalya Yutin,b Torstein Tengs,a Tania Senkevich,c Eugene Koonin,b Hans Petter Rønning,dMarta Alarcon,a Sonja Ylving,a Kai-Inge Lie,a Britt Saure,a Linh Tran,a Bernard Moss, c and Ole Bendik Dalea

G. McFadden, Editor

Author information ► Article notes ► Copyright and License information ►

This article has been corrected. See J Virol. 2015 October 2; 89(21): 11174.

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ABSTRACT

Poxviruses are large DNA viruses of vertebrates and insects causing disease in many animal species, including reptiles, birds, and mammals. Although poxvirus-like particles were detected in diseased farmed koi carp, ayu, and Atlantic salmon, their genetic relationships to poxviruses were not established. Here, we provide the first genome sequence of a fish poxvirus, which was isolated from farmed Atlantic salmon. In the present study, we used quantitative PCR and immunohistochemistry to determine aspects of salmon gill poxvirus disease, which are described here. The gill was the main target organ where immature and mature poxvirus particles were detected. The particles were detected in detaching, apoptotic respiratory epithelial cells preceding clinical disease in the form of lethargy, respiratory distress, and mortality. In moribund salmon, blocking of gas exchange would likely be caused by the adherence of respiratory lamellae and epithelial proliferation obstructing respiratory surfaces. The virus was not found in healthy salmon or in control fish with gill disease without apoptotic cells, although transmission remains to be demonstrated. PCR of archival tissue confirmed virus infection in 14 cases with gill apoptosis in Norway starting from 1995. Phylogenomic analyses showed that the fish poxvirus is the deepest available branch of chordopoxviruses. The virus genome encompasses most key chordopoxvirus genes that are required for genome replication and expression, although the gene order is substantially different from that in other chordopoxviruses. Nevertheless, many highly conserved chordopoxvirus genes involved in viral membrane biogenesis or virus-host interactions are missing. Instead, the salmon poxvirus carries numerous genes encoding unknown proteins, many of which have low sequence complexity and contain simple repeats suggestive of intrinsic disorder or distinct protein structures.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Sample material.

Samples were collected from three different Norwegian salmon farms in which the fish had suspected SGPV-related disease (gill apoptosis) (Table 1) and at the following clinical stages: premortality (n = 20; samples were taken 1 to 3 days before mortality was observed), mortality (n = 60; samples were taken from tanks in which mortality occurred and lethargic fish crowded on the bottom), and postmortality (n = 10; samples were taken from tanks in which mortality was observed a week prior to sampling). The average weight was 27 g (range, 10 to 40 g).

Hoping this will be helpful,

Rafik

Dear Rafik,

Thank you for the tip! I will check it out.

All the best,

Alf

Hi Alf,

I did some studies on the Australian lungfish. I think I still have some paraffin embedded tissues and/or sections on slides. Happy to collaborates.

Dear Dr Mohammad,

Thank you very much for your encouraging answer! If you indeed have the chance to send me paraffin embedded (or tissue still on formalin) gill tissue of Australian lungfish, this would be a huge favour.

Thank you very much!

All the best,

Alf