Inter-laboratory comparison of cell lines for susceptibility to three viruses: VHSV, IHNV and IPNV

Eleven European National Reference Laboratories participated in an inter-la boratory comparison of the susceptibility of 5 selected cell lines to 3 fis h pathogenic viruses. The test included viral hemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV), infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) and infectious panc reatic necrosis Virus (IPNV), and the cell lines derived from bluegill fry (BF-2), chinook salmon embryo (CHSE-214), epithelioma papulosum cyprini (EP C), fathead minnow (FHM) and rainbow trout gonad (RTG-2). The results showe d that for isolation of VHSV, BF-2 and RTG-2 cells performed equally well a nd had higher sensitivity compared to the other cell Lines. For IHNV, EPC a nd FHM cells gave the best results, and for IPNV it was BF-2 and CHSE-214 c ells. FHM cells showed the largest variability among laboratories, whereas EPC was the cell line showing the smallest variability.