RESUMO
In spring 2008, infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) was detected for the first time in the Netherlands. The virus was isolated from rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), from a put-and-take fishery with angling ponds. IHNV is the causative agent of a serious fish disease, infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN). From 2008 to 2011, we diagnosed eight IHNV infections in rainbow trout originating from six put-and-take fisheries (symptomatic and asymptomatic fish), and four IHNV infections from three rainbow trout farms (of which two were co-infected by infectious pancreatic necrosis virus, IPNV), at water temperatures between 5 and 15 °C. At least one farm delivered trout to four of these eight IHNV-positive farms. Mortalities related to IHNV were mostly <40%, but increased to nearly 100% in case of IHNV and IPNV co-infection. Subsequent phylogenetic analysis revealed that these 12 isolates clustered into two different monophyletic groups within the European IHNV genogroup E. One of these two groups indicates a virus-introduction event by a German trout import, whereas the second group indicates that IHNV was already (several years) in the Netherlands before its discovery in 2008.