Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) causes an acute, contagious disease in a number of economically important fish species (Pilcher & Fryer 1980). It is a member of the Birnaviridae (Brown 1986). In this study, the present authors first characterized the process of fish cell damage caused by IPNV infection in cultured cells, and found that it induced fragmentation of chromosomal DNA into oligonucleosomes and also cause...

An investigation of virus‐specific protein maturation in infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) infected Chinook salmon embryo cells (CHSE‐214) was undertaken. The precursor protein (pVP2–1) of the major mature capsid protein (VP2) was processed sequentially from pVP2–1 to pVP2–2 and VP2. Experiments using serine proteinase inhibitors showed that the maturation of the VP2 was blocked in the pVP2–1 post‐translational cleav...