ABSTRACT
The virus replicates in intranuclear lesions which are Feulgen positive. In addition to the viruses causing epizootics, such as the iridoviruses, agents of the gill disease, and mass mortality of the Portugese oyster, some viruses, or lesions suspected to be viral, have been observed, often fortuitously, on several marine molluscans. Their taxonomic position is undefined or uncertain. By its morphological and physical characteristics, the virus, causative agent of hemic neoplasia in the soft clam, shows similarities to the B-type retrovirus. Virus-like particles, resembling C-type particles from baboon and human placenta, have been described by C. A. Farley in digestive cells of Crassostrea virginica. According to Farley, the Togaviridae could be represented in the marine molluscans, by a virus of the oyster, Ostrea lurida,. This same author furthermore in his scheme of classification, proposes as Paramyxoviridae a presumed agent developing virus-like inclusions in Mya arenaria.
