Epidemiological pattern of tattoo skin disease: a potential general health indicator for cetaceans

Diseases of Aquatic Organisms

Gian Paolo Sanino¹  Koen Van Waerebeek¹  Marie-Françoise Van Bressem¹  Pádraig Duignan¹  Ursula Siebert¹  Leonardo Flach¹  Raquel Gaspar¹  Francisco Viddi¹  Vic Peddemors¹  Ana Paula Di Beneditto¹  Juan Antonio Raga¹  Fernando Felix¹  0¹  Julio Reyes¹  Francisco Javier Aznar¹  Mónica Echegaray¹  Tilen Genov¹  Renata Ramos¹  Rob Deaville¹  John R. Baker¹  Paul D. Jepson¹ 

关键词: Tattoo skin disease;    Poxviruses;    Cetaceans;    Epidemiology;    Health status;   

DOI  :  10.3354/dao02080

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: The presence of tattoo skin disease (TSD) was examined in 1392 free-ranging and dead odontocetes comprising 17 species from the Americas, Europe, South Africa, New Zealand and Greenland. We investigated whether TSD prevalence varied with sex, age and health status. TSD was encountered in cetaceans from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans as well as in those from the North, Mediterranean and Tasman Seas. No clear patterns related to geography and host phylogeny were detected, except that prevalence of TSD in juveniles and, in 2 species (dusky dolphin Lagenorhynchus obscurus and Burmeister’s porpoise Phocoena spinipinnis), in adults was remarkably high in samples from Peru. Environmental factors and virus properties may be responsible for this finding. Sex did not significantly influence TSD prevalence except in the case of Peruvian P. spinipinnis. Generally, there was a pattern of TSD increase in juveniles compared to calves, attributed to the loss of maternal immunity. Also, in most samples, juveniles seemed to have a higher probability of suffering TSD than adults, presumably because more adults had acquired active immunity following infection. This holo-endemic pattern was inverted in poor health short-beaked common dolphins Delphinus delphis and harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena from the British Isles, and in Chilean dolphins Cephalorhynchus eutropia from Patagonia, where adults showed a higher TSD prevalence than juveniles. Very large tattoos were seen in some adult odontocetes from the SE Pacific, NE Atlantic and Portugal’s Sado Estuary, which suggest impaired immune response. The epidemiological pattern of TSD may be an indicator of cetacean population health.

【 授权许可】

Unknown