Virulence evolution of a salmonid virus following a host jump.

ABSTRACT: Emergent viral diseases remain a critical obstacle to welfare across landscapes and species, encompassing humans, wildlife, and agriculture. Following a jump to a novel host, the severity of disease resulting from infection is a critical determinant of the overall emergent pathogen threat. Conventional wisdom posits that virulence, defined here as host mortality, attenuates to intermediate levels as a pathogen adapts to a novel host, but this is largely based on data from just one system, myxoma virus, which was intentionally introduced as a biocontrol agent in rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in mid-1900s Australia. In this study, we demonstrate that infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV), which made a host jump from sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka, ancestral host) to rainbow tr

SUBMITTER: Loeher MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12721516 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature