Oyster Herpes-Type Virus

Abstract

A herpes-type virus infection, the first to be found in an invertebrate animal, is reported in the oyster Crassostrea virginica. Intranuclear herpes-type viral inclusions were more prevalent in the oyster at elevated water temperatures of 28 degrees to 30 degrees C than at normal ambient temperatures of 18 degrees to 20 degrees C. The inclusions were associated with a lethal disease at the elevated temperatures.

Purification and partial genome characterization of a herpes-like virus infecting the Japanese oyster, Crassostrea gigas.

“…Concerning invertebrates, viruses morphologically related to the Herpesviridae have been identified in different oyster species . The first was observed in Crassostrea virginica (Farley et al, 1972). Subsequently, herpes-like viruses in other cultivated oyster species, such as Crassostrea gigas (Hine et al, 1992 ;Nicolas et al, 1992 ;Renault et al, 1994 b) and Ostrea edulis (Comps & Cochennec, 1993), have been found to be associated with high mortality rates.…”

“…The nuclei contain spherical or polygonal particles, 70-100 nm in diameter, depending on the infected oyster species (Farley et al, 1972 ;Hine et al, 1992 ;Nicolas et al, 1992 ;Comps & Cochennec, 1993 ;Hine, 1997 ;Hine & Thorne, 1997). Some particles appear empty and consist of structures assumed to be capsids ; other contain an electron-dense core and are interpreted as being nucleocapsids.…”

“…These particles consist of a capsid with an electron-dense nucleoid that is in turn surrounded by a unitmembrane-like structure. The enveloped virions, 90-180 nm in size, exhibit spike-like protrusions on the surface, and sometimes a tail (Farley et al, 1972 ;Hine et al, 1992 ;Nicolas et al, 1992 ;Comps & Cochennec, 1993 ;Hine, 1997 ;Hine & Thorne, 1997).…”

Pollution effects on fisheries — potential management activities

“…There has been an explosion of information about viruses in marine animals in the past few years, and pollutant stress may be one way of elucidating their effects on marine animals. Several viral diseases of fish and invertebrates have been recognized after exposure to pollutant stress (Farley et al, 1972;Couch, 1974;Buchanan et al, 1978).…”

Pathogenicity of a Birnavirus to Hard Clam(Meretrix lusoria) and Effect of Temperature Stress on Its Virulence.

“…Many viruses have been isolated from marine bi valve molluscs and shown to be pathogenic to hosts (Dobos et al, 1979;Elston and Wilkinson, 1985;Farley et al, 1972;Meyers, 1979;Oprandy et al, 1981;Underwood et al, 1977). In Taiwan, several viruses have been isolated from cultured hard clams, including CV-HB-1, CV-TS-1, CV-TS-8 of the family Birnaviridae (Lo et al, 1988) and HCV of family Reoviridae (Hsu et al, personal communication).…”