4. Discussion
While much is known about pathogens found in connection with diseases outbreaks, much less is known about the occurrence of potential pathogens in a healthy farmed salmon, or how such infections develop over time (Steinum et al., 2010; Aunsmo, 2009; Crockford et al., 1999). We followed the infections of four gill disease-associated agents, using RT PCR, during the first year of production in six farms. These farms were located in an area with high risk of developing gill disease, and three of the farms were diagnosed with GD in autumn, in one farm the diseases was apparent already in August. This allowed us to examine the densities of the studied agents in farms with this diagnosis, versus those without. It has been suggested that GD is due to the impact of several agents that may interact (Steinum et al., 2010, Steinum et al., 2009, Rodger et al., 2011). This hypothesis was tested, by examining the correlations between the densities of the different agents during the period with GD. During preliminary testing for infections in the present fish groups, an apparent association of high PRV levels with gill disease was noted, leading us to also analyze the fish for this virus, albeit not known to be a gill pathogen.