Presence of fibropapillomatosis in green turtles Chelonia mydas at Príncipe Island in the Gulf of Guinea

Abstract

Fibropapillomatosis is a transmissible and life threatening disease associated with one or more herpesviruses that are afflicting sea turtles worldwide (Herbst 1994). First documented on green turtles Chelonia mydas (Quackenbush et al. 1998), since the 1990's it has been found on other species, like hawksbills Eretmochelys imbricata (D’Amato & Moraes-Neto 2000; Williams & Bunkley-Williams 1996), olive ridleys Lepidochelys olivacea (Herbst 1994), loggerheads Caretta caretta (Aguirre 1998; Harms et al. 2008), and leatherbacks Dermochelys coriacea (Huerta et al. 2000). The etiology and prevalence of fibropapillomatosis are not fully understood and further research is needed. Even so, it is accepted that pelagic juveniles are free of the disease when recruiting to coastal foraging grounds (Ehrhart et al. 2000). [...]