Characterization of a new serotype of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus isolated from Atlantic salmon.

Virus particles isolated from hatchery reared fish with infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) were neutralized by homologous immune sera but not by immune sera raised against IPN virus serotype 1, 2, and 3. This virus isolate, called the N1 strain, was detected in one year old Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) during an outbreak with histopathological lesions of IPN and slightly increased mortality. The polypeptide pattern of N1 virus differed markedly from that of the three classical IPN virus serotypes. Double stranded RNA isolated from the N1 virus particles, co-migrated during agarose gel electrophoresis with nucleic acid isolated from the IPN virus Jasper and Ab strains. Nucleic acid hybridizations using low stringency washing conditions and a synthetic DNA oligonucleotide probe (representing the 3' end of the A segment of the Jasper strain) gave positive results with the IPN virus Jasper, Ab, Sp, and N1 strains. The results presented in this paper show that the N1 isolate differs immunologically and biochemically from the IPN virus serotypes 1, 2, and 3 and may represent a new serotype of IPNV.