Abstract

With the development of marine farming, new pathological risks are more and more important. Moreover, taking into account that the farms are close to the coast and estuaries, the main potential danger for fish health are the effluents from fresh-water fish farms. But the presence of wild fish is also dangerous especially when migrating species are concerned. Owing to the highly damaging nature of viruses, the absence of antiviral therapy and the stability of viruses in water, they must be considered as a limiting factor to the growth of marine aquaculture. A previous experimental study has demonstrated the high susceptibility of seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, turbot, Scophthalmus maximus and seabream to the Viral Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (VHS). The present study was carried out to investigate the susceptibility of those three species to a virus of Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) a disease well known on the Pacific coast of USA and Japan, which recently appeared in Europe, and to a rhabdovirus isolated from wild elvers, Anguilla anguilla .