HERPESVIRUS-ASSOCIATED GENITAL LESIONS IN A STRANDED STRIPED DOLPHIN (STENELLA COERULEOALBA) IN THE CANARY ISLANDS, SPAIN Eva Sierra, 1,2 Josue ´ Dı ´az-Delgado, 1 Manuel Arbelo, 1 Marisa Andrada, 1 Simona Sacchini, 1 and Antonio Ferna ´ ndez 1 1 Department of Veterinary Pathology, Institute for Animal Health, Veterinary School, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Trasmontan ˜ a S/N, 35416, Arucas, Las Palmas, Spain 2 Corresponding author (email: esierra@becarios.ulpgc.es) ABSTRACT: An adult male striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) stranded alive at Arico, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. The dolphin died shortly after stranding, and a complete postmortem examination was performed. The most remarkable gross findings were two fleshy masses of approximately 1 cm diameter, near the tip of the penis. These masses were composed of hyperplastic epithelial cells with pigmentary incontinence. Ballooning degeneration and margination of chromatin was observed within the stratum corneum of the epidermis. A universal nested PCR assay that amplifies a conserved region within the polymerase gene of Herpesviridae was positive. The sequenced product was most closely related to a gammaherpesvirus that shared nucleotide identities of 93% with penile lesions from Atlantic and Mediterranean bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). This similarity supports the hypothesis of sexual transmission between species. Key words: Genital lesions, herpesvirus, sexual transmission, striped dolphin. INTRODUCTION Herpesvirus infections have been de- scribed in five families of cetaceans: Phocoenidae, Monodontidae, Delphini- dae, Kogiidae, and Ziphiidae (Martineau et al. 1988; Smolarek Benson et al. 2006; Arbelo et al. 2010, 2012). These viruses in cetaceans have been associated with local- ized infections of the skin and genital mucosa and with systemic or organ system infections. Three subfamilies have been described within the Herpesviridae family: Alpha-, Beta-, and Gammaherpesvirinae. No betaherpesviruses have been de- scribed in cetaceans. Alphaherpesviruses have been more commonly associated with skin lesions and systemic infections in cetaceans, whereas gammaherpesviruses were more frequently found in genital wounds. Skin lesions have been attributed to a herpesvirus etiology in cetacean species by three diagnostic criteria: 1) their gross or histologic appearance (Greenwood et al. 1974; Baker 1992; Baker and Martin 1992), 2) ultrastructural demonstration of herpeslike viral particles (Martineau et al. 1988; Barr et al. 1989; Van Bressem et al. 1994), and 3) molec- ular criteria (Smolarek Benson et al. 2006; Sierra et al. 2014). Genital herpesvirus lesions have been described associated with plaquelike or proliferative wounds in bottlenose and Risso’s dolphins (Tursiops truncatus and Grampus griseus; Smolarek Benson et al. 2006), two Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris; Saliki et al. 2006; Smolarek Benson et al. 2006), and a beluga whale (Delphinap- terus leucas; Bellehumeur et al. 2015). Except for the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), molecular diagnosis was per- formed on all those cases, and the corresponding sequences are available in GenBank. Genital lesions of similar gross appearance have been associated with papillomaviruses in several cetacean spe- cies (Van Bressem et al. 1996, 2007; Gottschling et al. 2011; Rehtanz et al. 2012), so additional immunohistochemical and molecular studies are needed to identify the causative agent. Herpesviruses have also been responsible for more serious diseases, causing enceph- alitis in a harbor porpoise, a bottlenose DOI: 10.7589/2014-07-185 Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 51(3), 2015, pp. 696–702 # Wildlife Disease Association 2015 696 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/doi/pdf/10.7589/2014-07-185 by guest on 05 November 2021