Ranaviruses have been associated with chelonian mortality. In Canada, the first two cases of ranavirus were detected in turtles in 2018 in Ontario, although a subsequent survey of its prevalence failed to detect additional positive cases. To confirm the prevalence of ranavirus in turtles in Ontario, we used a more sensitive method to investigate if lower level persistent infection was present in the population. Here we report results via a combination of qPCR, PCR, Sanger sequencing and genome sequencing from turtles from across Ontario, with no clinical signs of illness. We found 2 positives with high viral load and 5 positives with low viral load. Histopathology found subtle histological changes. DNA sequences identified two types of frog virus 3 (FV3), and genome sequencing identified a ranavirus similar to wild-type FV3. Our results show that the virus has been present in Ontario’s turtles as subclinical infections.

鼻病毒已经与慢性乙型肝炎死亡率相关。在加拿大，2018年在安大略省的海龟中发现了前两例鼻病毒，尽管随后对其流行的调查未能发现其他阳性病例。为了确定安大略省海龟中的鼻病毒的患病率，我们使用了一种更为敏感的方法来调查种群中是否存在较低水平的持续感染。在这里，我们通过结合qPCR，PCR，Sanger测序和来自安大略省各地海龟的基因组测序的结果报告结果，没有临床疾病迹象。我们发现2个阳性病毒载量高，5个阳性病毒载量低。组织病理学发现微妙的组织学变化。DNA序列鉴定出两种类型的青蛙病毒3（FV3），而基因组测序鉴定出了类似于野生型FV3的蛙病毒。