Susceptibility of two abalone species, Haliotis diversicolor supertexta and Haliotis discus hannai, to Haliotid herpesvirus 1 infection.

Abalone viral ganglioneuritis (AVG), caused by Haliotid herpesvirus-1 (HaHV-1) infection, has been reported as the main cause of mortality and heavy losses of wild and cultivated abalone in Taiwan and Australia since 2003. HaHV-1 DNA has also been reported in diseased abalone collected in early 2000s in China. However, no data is available about the susceptibility, disease process and pathological changes of HaHV-1 infection in the primary cultivated abalone species in China. In the present study, two cultivated abalone species, Haliotis diversicolor supertexta and Haliotis discus hannai, were challenged with HaHV-1-CN2003 collected in 2003 in China using three different methods. Results showed that H. diversicolor supertexta was highly susceptible to HaHV-1-CN2003 infection and suffered acute mortality using all three challenge methods. H. discus hannai was not susceptible to the viral infection. Histopathology combined with transmission electron microscopy and quantitative PCR analysis revealed that the tropism of HaHV-1-CN2003 includes both neural tissue and haemocytes.