FIBROPAPILLOMA, SEA TURTLES - USA: (TEXAS)
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Date: 15 Aug 2010
Source: Valley Morning Star [edited]
<http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/valley-78803-raise-concern.html?>
There is a new concern about the Rio Grande Valley's sea turtle population.
A sinister virus has migrated to the waters off the tip of South Padre Island and infected green sea turtles. About 10 turtles have been diagnosed with fibropapilloma.
Fibropapilloma is a type of herpes [virus] that infects sea turtles, according to the Marine Animal Rescue Team Blog. The disease results in growths on the turtles.
Several green sea turtles that were captured for banding have been diagnosed with fibropapilloma. It's the 1st time Texas sea turtles have contracted the disease.
"The disease is not fatal, but when the tumors begin to grow over the eyes and flippers, they can sometimes impede feeding and normal movement," Dr. Tim Tristan, a Corpus Christi veterinarian, wrote in an e-mail.
"As a result, these individuals may become more susceptible to starvation, shark attacks, and other environmental factors that they would normally be able to overcome or avoid. How Rio Grande Valley sea turtles got the disease remains a mystery," Tristan wrote.
"It is still unknown why we are seeing the disease in South Texas, which is the reason we are currently investigating the factors that may be influencing its recent occurrence. Thus far, no Kemp's Ridley sea turtles have the virus. The disease process has been seen in Florida for years, yet continued conservation efforts to treat these turtles seem to be helping," Tristan wrote.
The tumors can be removed with surgery.
"It is worrisome to us," said Donna Shaver, chief of the Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery at Padre Island National Seashore.
Why and how sea turtles catch the virus is not known.
Tristan said it is not known for certain whether the disease can be transmitted somehow from different species of sea turtles.
[Byline: Steve Sinclair]
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ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
[The fibropapillomas are apparently initiated by a herpes virus. This is not the 1st growth or cancer that seems to have some kind of relationship with a virus or bacteria. However, the fact that surgery seems to correct the problem is fascinating in that the virus seems to be the initiator but not necessarily the sustainer of the problem.
The following web sites are from Japan, but offer some pictures of the situation.
A dead turtle found on Iriomote Island, Okinawa Prefecture:
<http://www4.osk.3web.ne.jp/~umigame/FpGreen.HP.JPG>
A case caught in a fishing net off Kochi:
<http://www4.osk.3web.ne.jp/~umigame/Fp.murotoHP.JPG>
In 2000, a 4837-bp sequence of a newly found green turtle herpesvirus (GTHV), implicated in the etiology of green turtle fibropapilloma, was obtained by researchers at the Retrovirology Research Laboratory, Pacific Biomedical Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, in 2000, from tumor tissues of a green turtle with fibropapilloma. See "Rapid acquisition of entire DNA polymerase gene of a novel herpesvirus from green turtle fibropapilloma by a genomic walking technique"; Yu Q, Hu N, Lu Y, Nerurkar VR, Yanagihara R.; J Virol Methods. 2001 Feb; 91(2):183-95. - Mod.TG]
[see also:
2004
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Fibropapilloma, sea turtles - Japan 20040102.0007
1995
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Fibropapilloma, sea turtles - Hawaii (USA) (3) 19951210.1223 Fibropapilloma, sea turtles - Hawaii (USA) (2) 19951207.1195 Fibropapilloma, sea turtles - Hawaii (USA) 19951204.1175 Turtle papilloma virus - RFI 19950412.0197] ............................................sb/tg/msp/mpp/ll
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