Abstract
Simple SummaryFibropapillomatosis is a debilitating tumor disease of sea turtles that is sometimes fatal. This disease is a key concern for sea turtle rehabilitation facilities due to its infectious nature, as it is associated with a virus called chelonid alphaherpesvirus 5. This is the first study to analyze antibodies to this virus in loggerhead sea turtles and represents the most complete dataset on viral detection in sea turtles encountered in the more northern latitudes of their habitat in the western Atlantic.Fibropapillomatosis is associated with chelonid alphaherpesvirus 5 (ChHV5) and tumor formation in sea turtles. We collected blood samples from 113 green (Chelonia mydas) and 112 loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtles without fibropapillomatosis, including 46 free-ranging turtles (20 green turtles, 26 loggerheads), captured in Core Sound, North Carolina, and 179 turtles (93 green turtles, 86 loggerheads) in rehabilitative care in North Carolina. Blood samples were analyzed for ChHV5 DNA using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and for antibodies to ChHV5 peptides using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). None of the samples from foraging turtles tested positive for ChHV5 by qPCR; ELISA was not used for foraging turtles. Samples from 18/179 (10.1%) rehabilitating turtles tested positive for ChHV5 using qPCR, and 32/56 (57.1%) rehabilitating turtles tested positive for antibodies to ChHV5 using ELISA. Five turtles that tested positive by qPCR or ELISA at admission converted to being undetectable during rehabilitation, and five that initially tested negative converted to being positive. Both sea turtle species were significantly more likely to test positive for ChHV5 using ELISA than with qPCR (p < 0.001). There was no difference in the proportions of green turtles versus loggerheads that tested positive for ChHV5 using qPCR, but loggerheads were significantly more likely than green turtles to test positive for ChHV5 using ELISA. This finding suggests that loggerheads infected with ChHV5 at some point in their life may be more able than green turtles to mount an effective immune response against recrudescent infection, pointing to species-specific genetic differences in the two species’ immune response to ChHV5 infection. This is the first study to analyze antibodies to ChHV5 in loggerhead turtles and represents the most complete dataset on ChHV5 DNA detection in sea turtles encountered in the more northern latitudes of their western Atlantic habitat.
Highlights
Sea turtles inhabiting the coastal habitats of the southeastern United States face many threats to their health and survival, including the infectious, tumor-causing disease fibropapillomatosis, hereafter referred to as “FP” [1]
Based on the results of the chi-squared tests (Table 3), both green and loggerhead turtles were significantly more likely to test positive for chelonid alphaherpesvirus 5 (ChHV5) antibodies using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) than for viral DNA with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)
There was no difference in the proportions of green turtles versus loggerheads that tested positive for ChHV5 using qPCR; loggerheads were significantly more likely than green turtles to test positive for ChHV5 using ELISA
Summary
Sea turtles inhabiting the coastal habitats of the southeastern United States face many threats to their health and survival, including the infectious, tumor-causing disease fibropapillomatosis, hereafter referred to as “FP” [1]. This disease is most commonly reported in green turtles (Chelonia mydas), but it has been sporadically described in all seven sea turtle species, including loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta; hereafter, loggerheads) [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. ChHV5 infection and/or FP development is a risk factor for turtles entering rehabilitation facilities, those facilities that admit and treat turtles with FP [12]
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