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Gill diseases cause serious losses in farming of Atlantic salmon and the number of agents involved increases. Salmon gill poxvirus (SGPV) and the gill disease in causes where SGPV apparently was the only disease-causing agent were initially characterized. Recently, it was further shown that SGPV can be a common denominator in widely different multifactorial gill diseases. Here, we present the challenge of diagnosing gill disease with SGPV in salmon fry of 0,3-5 grams. Apoptosis of gill lamellar epithelial cells and hemophagocytosis was also observed in fry similar to findings in smolts and grow-out fish. Using our newly developed immunohistochemistry method, we further demonstrate that some of the apoptotic epithelial cells covering the oral cavity were positive for SGPV. Thus, SGPV is not restricted to respiratory epithelium alone and may infect the fish at very early life stages. Furthermore, as the cases examined here are from Norway, Faroe Island and Scotland, we show that SGPV is more widespread than previously reported.

Introduction: We are concerned that the dental profession, worldwide, has lost its way. We are a group of senior scientists – researchers, academics and intellectuals – from various parts of the world, with over 250 years’ combined experience of working to improve the oral health of communities. The group is entirely independent of any institution, government body or corporate entity. We met for a few days in March 2017 under the hospitality of Professor Emeritus Alfonso Escobar at his home in the Andes of Colombia, known as La Cascada Mare, to share our concerns about the future of dental care and dental education (Professor Richard Watt was unable to attend the meeting in Colombia, but was able to share an outline of his paper and to provide inputs into this declaration). Each of us prepared a detailed paper of our experiences over the last half century, our assessment of the problems and suggestions for the way forward. Each paper was discussed in detail (the full texts can be accessed at https://lacascada.pressbooks.com). The following statement represents our analysis of the problem and provides some recommendations about what should be done.