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Diseases of Aquatic Organisms
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DAO 81:77-80 (2008)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/dao01927

Contribution to the DAO Special 'Marine vertebrate zoonoses'

Viral and bacterial serology of six free-ranging bearded seals Erignathus barbatus

Paul P. Calle1,*, Dana J. Seagars2,6, Catherine McClave3, Dennis Senne4, Carol House5, James A. House5

1Global Health Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Blvd., Bronx, New York 10460-1099, USA
2US Fish and Wildlife Service, Marine Mammals Management, 1011 E. Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska 99503, USA
3New York Aquarium, Wildlife Conservation Society, Surf Avenue & West 8th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11224, USA
4National Veterinary Services Laboratories, Ames, Iowa 50010, USA
5Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, USDA, APHIS-VS-NVSL, Plum Island, New York 11944, USA
6Present address: US Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Services, 605 W. Fourth Avenue, Anchorage, Alaska 99501, USA
*Email:

ABSTRACT: Serum or heparinized plasma samples were obtained from 3 male (2 adult and 1 weaned calf) and 3 adult female free-ranging bearded seals Erignathus barbatus in May of 1994, 1995, or 1996. Blood samples were obtained from animals taken in subsistence hunts near St. Lawrence Island, Alaska and screened for antibodies to a suite of bacteria and viruses potentially pathogenic for pinnipeds and/or humans. No samples had detectable antibodies to Brucella spp., Phocine distemper virus, influenza A virus or caliciviruses (San Miguel sea lion virus strains 1, 2, and 4 to 13, vesicular exanthema of swine serotypes A48, B51, C52, D53, E54, F55, G55, H54, I55, J56, K54, 1934B, and Tillamook and Walrus calicivirus). One seal had a low titer of 100 to Leptospira interrogans serovar grippotyphosa.


KEY WORDS: Leptospira interrogans · Brucella · Phocine distemper virus · Influenza A virus · Calicivirus · Bearded seal · Erignathus barbatus · Northern Bering Sea


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Cite this article as: Calle PP, Seagars DJ, McClave C, Senne D, House C, House JA (2008) Viral and bacterial serology of six free-ranging bearded seals Erignathus barbatus. Dis Aquat Org 81:77-80. https://doi.org/10.3354/dao01927

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Published in DAO Vol. 81, No. 1. Online publication date: August 19, 2008
Print ISSN: 0177-5103; Online ISSN: 1616-1580
Copyright © 2008 Inter-Research.
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