California Sea Grant College Program

In 2001, a potentially lethal pathogen was identified in sardines landed in Southern California. The pathogen was found to be a rhabdovirus with similarities to the rabies virus. The virus attacks the lining of a fish’s blood vessels causing hemorrhaging. Fish with these symptoms have what is known as viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS), a disease that has caused mass fish kills in the wild and at farms. Although California sardines were infected with the VHS virus, none of the fish sampled showed symptoms of disease.