DAO prepress abstract - doi: 10.3354/dao01927
Viral and bacterial serology of six free-ranging bearded seals Erignathus barbatus
Paul P. Calle, Dana J. Seagars, Catherine McClave, Dennis Senne, Carol House, James A. House
ABSTRACT: Serum or heparinized plasma samples were obtained from 3 male (two adult and one weaned calf) and 3 adult female free-ranging bearded seals Erignathus barbatus in May of 1994, 1995, or 1996. Blood samples were obtained from animals taken in subsistence hunts near St. Lawrence Island, Alaska and screened for antibodies to a suite of bacteria and viruses potentially pathogenic for pinnipeds and/or humans. No samples had detectable antibody to Brucella spp., Phocine distemper virus, influenza A virus, or caliciviruses (San Miguel sea lion virus strains 1, 2, and 4-13; vesicular exanthema of swine serotypes A48, B51, C52, D53, E54, F55, G55, H54, I55, J56, K54, 1934B; and Tillamook and Walrus calicivirus). One seal had a low titer of 100 to Leptospira interrogans serovar grippotyphosa.