Severe soft tissue ossification in a southern right whale Eubalaena australis

Luciano F. La Sala; Luciana M. Pozzi; Denise McAloose; Frederick S. Kaplan; Eileen M. Shore; Erwin J. O. Kompanje; Inga F. Sidor; Luciana Musmeci; Marcela M. Uhart

doi:10.3354/dao02538

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Diseases of Aquatic Organisms

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DAO 102:149-156 (2012) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/dao02538

Severe soft tissue ossification in a southern right whale Eubalaena australis

Luciano F. La Sala^1,2,*, Luciana M. Pozzi^1,3,4, Denise McAloose⁵, Frederick S. Kaplan^6,7, Eileen M. Shore^6,8, Erwin J. O. Kompanje⁹, Inga F. Sidor¹⁰, Luciana Musmeci^1,3,4, Marcela M. Uhart^1,11

¹Southern Right Whale Health Monitoring Program, CC No. 19, 9120 Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina
²Centro de Estudios Cuantitativos en Salud Animal, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, 2170 Casilda, Sante Fe, and CONICET, Argentina
³Fundación Patagonia Natural, Marcos A. Zar 760, 9120 Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina
⁴Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT-CONICET), Blvd. Brown 2915, 9120 Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina
⁵Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Blvd., New York, New York 10460, USA
⁶Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Center for Research in FOP and Related Disorders, and ⁷Department of Medicine, Two Silverstein Pavilion, 3400 Spruce St., and ⁸Department of Genetics, 424 Stemmler Hall, 3450 Hamilton Walk, The Perelman School of Medicine at The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6081, USA
⁹Natural History Museum Rotterdam, Westzeedijk 345, AA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
¹⁰NH Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, University of New Hampshire, Kendall Hall, 129 Main Street, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, USA
¹¹Global Health Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, CC No. 19, 9120 Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina

*Email: lucianolasala@yahoo.com.ar

ABSTRACT: The carcass of a stranded southern right whale Eubalaena australis, discovered on the coast of Golfo Nuevo in Península Valdés, Argentina, exhibited extensive orthotopic and heterotopic ossification, osteochondroma-like lesions, and early degenerative joint disease. Extensive soft tissue ossification led to ankylosis of the axial skeleton in a pattern that, in many respects, appeared more similar to a disabling human genetic disorder, fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), than to more common skeletal system diseases in cetaceans and other species. This is the first reported case of a FOP-like condition in a marine mammal and raises important questions about conserved mechanisms of orthotopic and heterotopic ossification in this clade.

KEY WORDS: Baleen whale · Ankylosis · Joint disease · Orthotopic/heterotopic ossification · Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva · FOP

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Cite this article as: La Sala LF, Pozzi LM, McAloose D, Kaplan FS and others (2012) Severe soft tissue ossification in a southern right whale Eubalaena australis. Dis Aquat Org 102:149-156. https://doi.org/10.3354/dao02538

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DAO 102:149-156 (2012) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/dao02538

Severe soft tissue ossification in a southern right whale Eubalaena australis

Luciano F. La Sala1,2,*, Luciana M. Pozzi1,3,4, Denise McAloose5, Frederick S. Kaplan6,7, Eileen M. Shore6,8, Erwin J. O. Kompanje9, Inga F. Sidor10, Luciana Musmeci1,3,4, Marcela M. Uhart1,11

Luciano F. La Sala^1,2,*, Luciana M. Pozzi^1,3,4, Denise McAloose⁵, Frederick S. Kaplan^6,7, Eileen M. Shore^6,8, Erwin J. O. Kompanje⁹, Inga F. Sidor¹⁰, Luciana Musmeci^1,3,4, Marcela M. Uhart^1,11