We are pleased to
announce the publication of the following paper in Diseases of
Aquatic Organisms: Van Bressem MF, Simões-Lopes PC, Félix F, Kiszka JJ, Daura-Jorge FG,
Avila IC, Secchi ER, Flach L, Fruet PF, du Toit K, Ott PH, Elwen S, Di
Giacomo AB, Wagner J, Banks A, Van Waerebeek K. 2015. Epidemiology
of lobomycosis-like disease in bottlenose dolphins Tursiops spp.
from South America and southern Africa. Dis Aquat Organ.117(1):59-75. doi: 10.3354/dao02932.
ABSTRACT:
We report on the epidemiology of lobomycosis-like disease (LLD), a
cutaneous disorder evoking lobomycosis, in 658 common bottlenose
dolphins Tursiops truncatus from South America and 94
Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins T. aduncus from southern
Africa. Photographs and stranding records of 387 inshore residents,
60 inshore non-residents and 305 specimens of undetermined origin
(inshore and offshore) were examined for the presence of LLD lesions
from 2004 to 2015. Seventeen residents, 3 non-residents and 1
inshore dolphin of unknown residence status were positive. LLD
lesions appeared as single or multiple, light grey to whitish
nodules and plaques that may ulcerate and increase in size over
time. Among resident dolphins, prevalence varied significantly among
4 communities, being low in Posorja (2.35%, n = 85), Ecuador, and
high in Salinas, Ecuador (16.7%, n = 18), and Laguna, Brazil (14.3%,
n = 42). LLD prevalence increased in 36 T. truncatus from
Laguna from 5.6% in 2007-2009 to 13.9% in 2013-2014, albeit not
significantly. The disease has persisted for years in dolphins from
Mayotte, Laguna, Salinas, the Sanquianga National Park and Bahía
Málaga (Colombia) but vanished from the Tramandaí Estuary and the
Mampituba River (Brazil). The geographical range of LLD has expanded
in Brazil, South Africa and Ecuador, in areas that have been
regularly surveyed for 10 to 35 yr. Two of the 21 LLD-affected
dolphins were found dead with extensive lesions in southern Brazil,
and 2 others disappeared, and presumably died, in Ecuador. These
observations stress the need for targeted epidemiological,
histological and molecular studies of LLD in dolphins, especially in
the Southern Hemisphere.