Our experimental infection results revealed
that all of the viral-inoculated so shell turtles
showed severe clinical signs and died within
two weeks. The cutaneous lesions were similar
to those of the field cases. Numerous tiny white
pocks were observed on the CAM of so shell
turtle embryos but no plaque was observed
in embryonated chicken eggs aer virus inoculation.
No clinical lesions were observed
in experimentally infected tilapia or chickens.
These findings demonstrate that “so shell
turtle poxvirus-like virus” is a lethal pathogen to
so shell turtles, but it might not be pathogenic
to either tilapia or chickens.