Virus X - an unexpected source of contamination

摘要

In the November issue of the Journal we reported the results of a bioassay experiment in which dust from a commercial farm was used as an inoculum to investigate the presence or absence of spores. During this experiment we became aware that mushrooms produced around the inoculum points looked odd. It is difficult to be more precise than that. On the basis of 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' we sampled mushrooms from the third flush immediately adjacent to the small areas inoculated with farm dust. Just to remind you, this dust had been gathered from within a cropping house and from the roadway outside the cropping houses. Both mushroom samples tested positive for Virus X, and both had the same banding profile. If there was any difference betweenthe two it was that the result from the tray inoculated with dust from the cropping house was slightly stronger. The farm from which the dust was taken has had Virus X, while all material from HRI has tested negative, and continues to do so. It appearstherefore that Virus X was transmitted via the dust inoculum. What adds to the conviction that this was a real result, as opposed to some sort of coincidence, is the fact that the Virus X banding profiles we obtained had elements in common to the farm inquestion and which are quite unusual on other sites (e.g. band 6, Fig. 1).