0000000000745368
AUTHOR
Raquel Gaspar
Epidemiology of tattoo skin disease in bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus from the Sado estuary, Portugal
We report on the epidemiology of tattoo disease in a community of bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus from the Sado estuary, Portugal. The presence of tattoos (T++) and tattoo-like (T+) lesions was examined in 586 photographic records of 35 dolphins taken from 1994 to 1997. Images were rated into 3 categories: good (GI), average (AI) and poor (PI). Dolphins positive for T++ lesions were observed in 19 GI. Dolphins with T+ lesions were seen in 39 GI, 23 AI and 6 PI. For statistical analysis the dolphins were divided into 2 age classes (immature and adult) and the data grouped into 2 periods (1994-1995 and 1996-1997). Minimum prevalence of T++ lesions in 32 dolphins was 21.9% in 1994-1995 …
Epidemiological pattern of tattoo skin disease: a potential general health indicator for cetaceans
The presence of tattoo skin disease (TSD) was examined in 1392 free-ranging and dead odontocetes comprising 17 species from the Americas, Europe, South Africa, New Zealand and Greenland. We investigated whether TSD prevalence varied with sex, age and health status. TSD was encountered in cetaceans from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans as well as in those from the North, Mediterranean and Tasman Seas. No clear patterns related to geography and host phylogeny were detected, except that prevalence of TSD in juveniles and, in 2 species (dusky dolphin Lagenorhynchus obscurus and Burmeister’s porpoise Phocoena spinipinnis), in adults was remarkably high in samples from Peru. Environmental factors …