But Mark Polinski, a Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientist who was the lead and co-lead author on each study respectively, says they found the virus does not seem to have the same effect on Atlantic salmon studied in British Columbia.

While PRV could be a contributing factor to fish developing the disease, the study suggests it's not the sole cause and seems to cause less harm, Polinski said.

"With this data, it's kind of clearly showing you can't just blame it on the presence or absence of PRV," he said.

As part of the study, scientists injected healthy fish with the virus collected from an infected fish that also had heart lesions consistent with the muscle inflammation disease.