Abstract
BackgroundBrucella ceti infections have been increasingly reported in cetaceans. Brucellosis in these animals is associated with meningoencephalitis, abortion, discospondylitis’, subcutaneous abscesses, endometritis and other pathological conditions B. ceti infections have been frequently described in dolphins from both, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In the Mediterranean Sea, only two reports have been made: one from the Italian Tyrrhenian Sea and the other from the Adriatic Sea.ResultsWe describe the clinical and pathological features of three cases of B. ceti infections in three dolphins stranded in the Mediterranean Catalonian coast. One striped dolphin had neurobrucellosis, showing lethargy, incoordination and lateral swimming due to meningoencephalitis, A B. ceti infected bottlenose dolphin had discospondylitis, and another striped dolphin did not show clinical signs or lesions related to Brucella infection. A detailed characterization of the three B. ceti isolates was performed by bacteriological, molecular, protein and fatty acid analyses.ConclusionsAll the B. ceti strains originating from Mediterranean dolphins cluster together in a distinct phylogenetic clade, close to that formed by B. ceti isolates from dolphins inhabiting the Atlantic Ocean. Our study confirms the severity of pathological signs in stranded dolphins and the relevance of B. ceti as a pathogen in the Mediterranean Sea.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-014-0206-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Brucella ceti infections have been increasingly reported in cetaceans
Gross pathological studies were performed in the three dolphins and complete sets of organs and tissues for each animal were preserved in 10% buffered formalin and processed for histopathological examination and immunohistochemical detection of Cetacean Morbillivirus (CeMV) as described previously [17]
The multilocus sequence analysis of these three B. ceti Mediterranean strains indicates that they belong to the dolphin type of the ST26 cluster.Up to now, all B. ceti Mediterranean strains stem in a separate branch from the main MLVA16 A1 and A2 clusters of B. ceti isolates from dolphins inhabiting the Atlantic Ocean
Summary
Brucella ceti infections have been increasingly reported in cetaceans. In the Mediterranean Sea, only two reports have been made: one from the Italian Tyrrhenian Sea and the other from the Adriatic Sea. After the first descriptions of Brucella infections in dolphins and seals and the definition of Brucella ceti and Brucella pinnipedialis as two new species within the genus [1,2,3], there has been an increasing recognition of brucellosis in marine mammals (see [4] and [5] for recent reviews). Presumptive Brucella infections in Western Mediterranean Sea dolphins was first established by serology in two striped dolphins and one bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) stranded on the Mediterranean Catalonian coast [14]. We describe the clinical and pathological features of three cases of brucellosis in dolphins stranded on the Mediterranean Catalonian coast, and provide detailed information on the phenotypic and molecular characterization of these three B. ceti isolates
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