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An Epizootic of Cutaneous Fibropapillomas in Green Turtles Chelonia mydas of the Caribbean: Part of a Panzootic?
Author(s) -
Williams Ernest H.,
BunkleyWilliams Lucy,
Peters Esther C.,
PintoRodriguez Benito,
MatosMorales Robert,
MignucciGiani Antonio A.,
Hall Kathleen V.,
RuedaAlmonacid José Vicente,
Sybesma Jeffrey,
Calventi Idelisa Bonnelly,
Boulon Ralf H.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of aquatic animal health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.507
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1548-8667
pISSN - 0899-7659
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8667(1994)006<0070:aeocfi>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - epizootic , biology , turtle (robot) , zoology , digenea , fishery , range (aeronautics) , fish <actinopterygii> , ecology , helminths , trematoda , outbreak , virology , materials science , composite material
An epizootic of fibropapillomas in green turtles Chelonia mydas (Reptilia: Testudines: Cheloniidae) has occurred throughout the Caribbean since the mid‐1980s. Similar epizootics in Hawaii and Florida began 5 years earlier. All may be part of a panzootic. The 125 Caribbean cases greatly expand the known range of these epizootics. All the tumors we examined had spirorchiid (Digenea) eggs. Few turtles we examined with tumors were emaciated. Additional tumors quickly erupted in some captive turtles, whereas tumors of others remained unchanged for 1 year. The turtle leech Ozobranchus branchiatus (Hirudinea: Ozobranchidae) was associated with only three green turtles with fibropapillomas.