Cardiomyopathy Syndrome (CMS) Virus Discovered

Through this discovery more tools will become available that will make it possible to control the disease and limit the spread and the impact of the disease. PHARMAQ will explore the possibilities for developing a vaccine against CMS, a disease which currently results in significant losses for the aquaculture industry.

Cardiomyopathy syndrome of Atlantic salmon was first recorded in the mid 80’s in Norway. Economic losses are high since primarily fish at slaughter size die. The virus was discovered through a close research collaboration between PHARMAQ with project manager Marit Rode, and Professor Øystein Evensen and his research group at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science. This is a result of a close and productive collaboration over many years, say the two scientists. The research programme was partly funded by the Research Council of Norway.

Pål Nilsen and Dr Karine Lindmo were the main scientists at PHARMAQ while Drs. Øyvind Haugland and Aase B. Mikalsen were the two scientists with strongest involvement at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science. The focus has been to characterize the virus and study the host-pathogen interaction and development of disease.

We have identified a new and until now unknown virus of fish and part of the genome show resemblance with viruses of the family Totiviridae, says Øyvind Haugland, and he continues: The fact that such a virus has not been described in fish before is by itself interesting, but also challenging scientifically. A related virus has earlier been identified as the cause of myonecrosis of white shrimp, but no virus of this family has been isolated from a vertebrate species before.