Diseases of captive marine mammals

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Abstract
This paper summarises the diseases observed over a 5-year-period in 29 marine mammals which died in a marine zoological park. Cholangiohepatitis associated with the trematode Campulla palliata was a common finding in dolphins (Delphinus delphis), and septicaemias due to Staphylococcus pyogenes and Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae were recorded. A New Zealand fur seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) died of salmonellosis due to Salmonella newport, a serotype rarely recorded in New Zealand. In other fur seals, an unidentified plerocercoid in subcutaneous cysts, Contracaecum osculatum in the stomach, Diphyllobothrium sp., Anisakis sp. and Corynosoma australe in the intestines were seen. Bacterial and parasitic infections were also found in sea leopards (Hydrurga leptonyx), and one animal died as the result of gastric impaction by 23 kg of stones and shells. An unidentified upper respiratory infection was twice observed in Californian sea lions Zalophus californianus). A female sea elephant (Macrorhinus leoninus), which died after a short illness, had parasitic ulcerative gastritis, evidence of a haemolytic episode of unknown cause, and terminal septicaemia. The gastric parasites were probably A nisakis simplex.

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