SEVERE DISSEMINATED FIBROPAPILLOMATOSIS IN A REHABILITATING
LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLE (Caretta caretta)
Annie Page-Karjian, DVM,1* Terry M. Norton, DVM, Dipl ACZM,2 Nancy Stedman, DVM,
PhD, Dipl ACVP,3 and Nicole L. Gottdenker, DVM, PhD, Dipl ACVP1
1University
of Georgia, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathology, Athens, GA
30602 USA; 2Georgia Sea Turtle Center, Jekyll Island Authority, Jekyll Island, GA 31527 USA;
3Busch Gardens Zoo Hospital, Tampa, FL 33612 USA
ABSTRACT
A sub-adult female loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) found floating was presented to the
Georgia Sea Turtle Center for rehabilitation. The turtle had severe disseminated cutaneous
fibropapillomatosis (FP), anterior anasarca, multifocal bruises, neck trauma, a healed caudal
carapace deformity, and abundant epibiota on the carapace and plastron. Hepatic and/or renal
disease was suspected due to green plasma and elevated plasma uric acid concentrations. During
rehabilitation, the turtle continued floating despite repeated coelomocentesis procedures, was
dehydrated and anemic, and intermittently anorectic. Humane euthanasia was elected following
minimal clinical response and tumor biopsy, PCR and CT results indicating severe FP with internal
tumors.
Necropsy revealed subcutaneous and coelomic edema, small masses in the liver, gallstones, a flat
and tortuous gallbladder, possible fibropapillomas in the stomach and colon, hyperemic small
intestinal mucosa, a fibrous left kidney, and a cyst in the right kidney. All skin specimens suspected
for FP were confirmed histologically, and were positive for herpesvirus by PCR, with 100%
sequence homology to C. caretta herpesvirus (FL variant D; GenBank AF120208.1). Stomach and
colon masses were diagnosed as ulcerated fibropapillomas; lesions in the lung, kidney, liver,
skeletal muscle, adipose, trachea, and great vessels were diagnosed as atypical connective tissue
proliferation consistent with the typical stromal component of FP. Via nested PCR, all tissues
collected during necropsy tested positive for herpesvirus, with positive samples ≥97% homologous
to C. caretta herpesvirus. In loggerheads, FP is rare and often mild or incidental; this case
represents an atypical presentation of severe FP in a rehabilitating loggerhead.
2014 Proceedings Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians
158