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First histological and virological report of fibropapilloma associated with herpesvirus in Chelonia mydas at Príncipe Island, West Africa

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Abstract

Marine turtle fibropapillomatosis is an emerging disease that affects marine turtles worldwide. This report describes the histopathological features and involvement of chelonid fibropapilloma-associated herpesvirus in marine turtle fibropapillomatosis detected in the green turtle Chelonia mydas at Príncipe Island, Gulf of Guinea. The histopathological findings confirmed the presence of fibropapillomas with both verrucous and fibromatous subtypes. Quantitative real-time PCR was used for detection of chelonid fibropapilloma-associated herpesvirus in tissue samples (n = 18) collected from afflicted (n = 10) and apparently healthy turtles (n = 2), revealing 94.4% positive samples, confirming the presence of viral sequences not only in fibropapillomatosis lesions but also in the skin of apparently healthy animals.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge ‘Oceanário de Lisboa’, who provided funds to the ‘Programa SADA’, Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Sanidade Animal (CIISA), Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária/Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (FMV/UTL) for funding the virology work, and Jacinto Gomes from the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Biológicos, Instituto Público/Laboratório Nacional de Investigação Veterinária (INRB, IP/LNIV) for leech identification.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Sanidade Animal (CIISA), Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Avenida da Universidade Técnica, Polo Universitário da Ajuda, 1300-477, Lisboa, Portugal

    A. Duarte, S. Gil & L. Tavares

  2. Centro de Investigação em Ciências Veterinárias (CICV) Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, 1749-024, Lisboa, Portugal

    P. Faísca

  3. Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia-DCTMA-Ed. 8, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139, Faro, Portugal

    N. S. Loureiro

  4. Department of Food Safety and Infection Biology Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, P.O. Box 8146 Dep, 0033, Oslo, Norway

    R. Rosado

  5. Oceanário de Lisboa, 1999-005, Lisboa, Portugal

    N. Pereira

Authors
  1. A. Duarte
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  2. P. Faísca
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  3. N. S. Loureiro
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  4. R. Rosado
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  5. S. Gil
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  6. N. Pereira
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  7. L. Tavares
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Correspondence to A. Duarte.

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Duarte, A., Faísca, P., Loureiro, N.S. et al. First histological and virological report of fibropapilloma associated with herpesvirus in Chelonia mydas at Príncipe Island, West Africa. Arch Virol 157, 1155–1159 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-012-1285-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-012-1285-z

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