Health condition of juvenile Chelonia mydas related to fibropapillomatosis in southeast Brazil

Abstract

Packed cell volume (PCV), plasma biochemistry, visual body condition (BC), and calculated body condition index (BCI) were evaluated in 170 wild juvenile green sea turtles Chelonia mydas from an aggregation in the effluent canal of a steel mill in Brazil. Occurrence of cutaneous fibropapillomatosis (FP) was observed in 44.1% of the animals examined. BCI alone did not differ significantly between healthy animals and those afflicted with FP. However, all turtles with low BCI were severely afflicted and were uremic, hypoglycemic, and anemic in relation to healthy animals. Severe FP was not always reflected by a poor health condition of the individual. Clinical evaluation and plasma biochemistry indicated that most animals afflicted with FP were in good health condition. Differences in FP manifestations and associated health conditions in different geographic regions must be assessed by long-term health monitoring programs to help define priorities for conservation efforts.

Causes of Stranding and Mortality, and Final Disposition of Loggerhead Sea Turtles (Caretta caretta) Admitted to a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Gran Canaria Island, Spain (1998-2014): A Long-Term Retrospective Study

“…There are reports of disease surveys of free-living sea turtles in Australia [ 4 – 9 ], Hawaii [ 10 – 16 ], Florida [ 17 – 26 ], Brazil [ 27 ], France [ 28 ], Italy [ 29 ], and the Canary Islands [ 30 ]. However, long-term epidemiological studies of sea turtle diseases covering more than one decade are scarce [ 14 – 16 , 21 , 29 ], and only rarely the survival rates have been thoroughly analyzed [ 14 ].…”

Preliminary data on the occurrence of marine turtles in the Laje de Santos Marine State Park (SP, Brazil)

“…The TAMAR project registered 15.4% of animals with tumors (of a total of 10170 animals captured) between 2000 and 2005 in Brazil and 10.7% along the coast of the state of São Paulo. Of the 170 captured turtles in southeast Brazil, 44.1% had tumors of varying degrees of severity (SANTOS et al, 2015). Fibropapillomatosis has been observed more frequently in juveniles of C. mydas (WILLIAMS, 1994;AGUIRRE et al, 1998) with carapace length of 40 to 90 cm and weight between 10 and 30 kg (GEORGE, 1997), as were the animals captured in this study.…”

Disease risk analysis in sea turtles: A baseline study to inform conservation efforts

“…Herpesviruses cause severe diseases in chelonians, especially in animals in stressful situations with associated lower immune function [ 73 ]. Gray-patch disease (GPD), lung-eye-trachea disease (LETD) and FP are herpesvirus-associated diseases frequently described in sea turtles [ 26 , 74 – 76 ].…”

“…Climate change can also alter pathogen survival, transmission patterns, ecological balances, vector and host susceptibility [ 124 , 125 ]. Such adverse impacts have been seen in FP prevalence and the development of clinical disease [ 76 ].…”