Fatal enterocolitis in harbour seals ( Phoca vitulina) caused by infection with Eimeria phocae
Coccidiosis due to Eimeria phocae infection has been described in harbour seals ( Phoca vitulina ) from the western Atlantic population, but not in any detail in seals from the eastern Atlantic population. This paper describes fatal enterocolitis due to E phocae infection in three juvenile harbour s...
| Published in: | Veterinary Record |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2007
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/vr.160.9.297 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1136%2Fvr.160.9.297 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1136/vr.160.9.297/fullpdf |
| Summary: | Coccidiosis due to Eimeria phocae infection has been described in harbour seals ( Phoca vitulina ) from the western Atlantic population, but not in any detail in seals from the eastern Atlantic population. This paper describes fatal enterocolitis due to E phocae infection in three juvenile harbour seals at a rehabilitation centre in the Netherlands in July 2003. The clinical signs were lethargy, bloody faeces, and intermittent convulsions and muscle tremors just before they died; the nervous signs resembled those of nervous coccidiosis in calves. The main pathological finding was severe, diffuse, haemorrhagic enterocolitis; there were diffuse inflammatory changes in the lamina propria of the jejunal, ileal, caecal and colonic mucosa that were associated with the presence of the sexual stages and oocysts of a coccidian species identified as E phocae . A retrospective microscopical examination of intestinal tissues from 113 harbour seals that had died between 1999 and 2004 revealed one seal that was positive for E phocae . |
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