Epidemiology of skin changes in endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca)
Photographic identification catalogs of individual killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) over time provide a tool for remote health assessment. We retrospectively examined digital photographs of Southern Resident killer whales in the Salish Sea to characterize skin changes and to determine if they could be...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286551 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286551 |
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0286551 2024-05-19T07:46:47+00:00 Epidemiology of skin changes in endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) Gaydos, Joseph K. St. Leger, Judy Raverty, Stephen Nollens, Hendrik Haulena, Martin Ward, Eric J. Emmons, Candice K. Hanson, M. Bradley Balcomb, Ken Ellifrit, Dave Weiss, Michael N. Giles, Deborah Paiva, Vitor Hugo Rodrigues Private 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286551 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286551 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ PLOS ONE volume 18, issue 6, page e0286551 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2023 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286551 2024-05-01T07:06:27Z Photographic identification catalogs of individual killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) over time provide a tool for remote health assessment. We retrospectively examined digital photographs of Southern Resident killer whales in the Salish Sea to characterize skin changes and to determine if they could be an indicator of individual, pod, or population health. Using photographs collected from 2004 through 2016 from 18,697 individual whale sightings, we identified six lesions (cephalopod, erosions, gray patches, gray targets, orange on gray, and pinpoint black discoloration). Of 141 whales that were alive at some point during the study, 99% had photographic evidence of skin lesions. Using a multivariate model including age, sex, pod, and matriline across time, the point prevalence of the two most prevalent lesions, gray patches and gray targets, varied between pods and between years and showed small differences between stage classes. Despite minor differences, we document a strong increase in point prevalence of both lesion types in all three pods from 2004 through 2016. The health significance of this is not clear, but the possible relationship between these lesions and decreasing body condition and immunocompetence in an endangered, non-recovering population is a concern. Understanding the etiology and pathogenesis of these lesions is important to better understand the health significance of these skin changes that are increasing in prevalence. Article in Journal/Newspaper Orca Orcinus orca PLOS PLOS ONE 18 6 e0286551 |
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language |
English |
description |
Photographic identification catalogs of individual killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) over time provide a tool for remote health assessment. We retrospectively examined digital photographs of Southern Resident killer whales in the Salish Sea to characterize skin changes and to determine if they could be an indicator of individual, pod, or population health. Using photographs collected from 2004 through 2016 from 18,697 individual whale sightings, we identified six lesions (cephalopod, erosions, gray patches, gray targets, orange on gray, and pinpoint black discoloration). Of 141 whales that were alive at some point during the study, 99% had photographic evidence of skin lesions. Using a multivariate model including age, sex, pod, and matriline across time, the point prevalence of the two most prevalent lesions, gray patches and gray targets, varied between pods and between years and showed small differences between stage classes. Despite minor differences, we document a strong increase in point prevalence of both lesion types in all three pods from 2004 through 2016. The health significance of this is not clear, but the possible relationship between these lesions and decreasing body condition and immunocompetence in an endangered, non-recovering population is a concern. Understanding the etiology and pathogenesis of these lesions is important to better understand the health significance of these skin changes that are increasing in prevalence. |
author2 |
Paiva, Vitor Hugo Rodrigues Private |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gaydos, Joseph K. St. Leger, Judy Raverty, Stephen Nollens, Hendrik Haulena, Martin Ward, Eric J. Emmons, Candice K. Hanson, M. Bradley Balcomb, Ken Ellifrit, Dave Weiss, Michael N. Giles, Deborah |
spellingShingle |
Gaydos, Joseph K. St. Leger, Judy Raverty, Stephen Nollens, Hendrik Haulena, Martin Ward, Eric J. Emmons, Candice K. Hanson, M. Bradley Balcomb, Ken Ellifrit, Dave Weiss, Michael N. Giles, Deborah Epidemiology of skin changes in endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
author_facet |
Gaydos, Joseph K. St. Leger, Judy Raverty, Stephen Nollens, Hendrik Haulena, Martin Ward, Eric J. Emmons, Candice K. Hanson, M. Bradley Balcomb, Ken Ellifrit, Dave Weiss, Michael N. Giles, Deborah |
author_sort |
Gaydos, Joseph K. |
title |
Epidemiology of skin changes in endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
title_short |
Epidemiology of skin changes in endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
title_full |
Epidemiology of skin changes in endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
title_fullStr |
Epidemiology of skin changes in endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Epidemiology of skin changes in endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
title_sort |
epidemiology of skin changes in endangered southern resident killer whales (orcinus orca) |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286551 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286551 |
genre |
Orca Orcinus orca |
genre_facet |
Orca Orcinus orca |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 18, issue 6, page e0286551 ISSN 1932-6203 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286551 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
e0286551 |
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1799487030746415104 |