A virus isolated from juvenile Japanese black abalone Nordotis discus discus affected with amyotrophia

Abstract

The disease amyotrophia causes serious morbidity and mortality in juvenile abalones at several hatcheries in Japan. The etiology of the disease has not been established; however, a filtrable agent has been associated with the disease. In the present study, a virus was isolated in a primary culture of abalone hemocytes from Japanese black abalones Nordotis discus discus histopathologically diagnosed to be affected with amyotrophia in 6 different prefectures. However, pathogenicity of the virus was not confirmed in a transmission experiment with juvenile black abalones, while a filtered homogenate prepared from the same batch of affected abalones reproduced the disease.