Abstract
Herpesviruses have been recognized in marine mammals, but their clinical relevance is not always easy to assess. A novel otarine herpesvirus-3 (OtHV3) was detected in a geriatric California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), and using a newly developed quantitative PCR assay paired with histology, OtHV3 was associated with esophageal ulcers and B cell lymphoblastic lymphoma in this animal. The prevalence and quantities of OtHV3 were then determined among buffy coats from 87 stranded and managed collection sea lions. Stranded sea lions had a higher prevalence of OtHV3 compared to managed collection sea lions (34.9% versus 12.5%; p = 0.04), and among the stranded sea lions, yearlings were most likely to be positive. Future epidemiological studies comparing the presence and viral loads of OtHV3 among a larger population of California sea lions with and without lymphoid neoplasia or esophageal ulcers would help elucidate the relevance of OtHV3-associated pathologies to these groups.
Highlights
Herpesviruses and herpesvirus antibodies have been identified in marine mammals globally [1,2,3]
While otarine herpesvirus-3 (OtHV3) was present in both groups, viral loads identified in the case sea lion that died from B cell lymphoma were magnitudes higher compared to the rest of the study population; the median and range of viral loads in Animal A was 29 009 and 5 205–72 164, while tissue loads from other sea lions ranged from 0.01 to 0.22 viral copies/ng DNA
OtHV3 loads were high in the same organs that were described as having lymphoblastic lymphoma upon histopathology
Summary
Herpesviruses and herpesvirus antibodies have been identified in marine mammals globally [1,2,3]. Marine mammal herpesviruses have included alphaherpesviruses and gammaherpesviruses [4]. Otarine herpesvirus-1 (OtHV1), a gammaherpesvirus, was identified among California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) and has been associated with urogenital carcinoma [10]. During 2008, a 24-year old geriatric male California sea lion with ulcerative esophagitis died from B cell lymphoblastic lymphoma. Lymphomas in humans, including B cell lymphomas and leukemias, have been associated with herpesvirus infections [11,12]. While laboratory animal studies have demonstrated that herpesvirus infections can lead to lymphoblastic lymphoma, identifying naturally occurring animal models for herpesvirus infection-associated lymphomas and leukemias may provide further insight into the ecology of this disease [13,14,15]
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