Background: Marine Brucella spp. have been isolated from numerous pinniped and cetacean species, but pathological findings in association with infection with Brucella pinnipedialis in pinnipeds have been sparse. The capacity of brucellae to survive and replicate within host macrophages underlies their important ability to produce chronic infections, but previous work has shown that B. pinnipedialis ...

The environmental temperature has profound effects on biological systems of marine aquatic organisms and plays a critical role in species distribution and abundance. Particularly during the warmer seasons, variations in habitat temperature may introduce episodes of stressful temperatures which the organisms must adapt to and compensate for to maintain physiological homeostasis. The marine environment ...

Pathology has not been observed in true seals infected with Brucella pinnipedialis. A lack of intracellular survival and multiplication of B. pinnipedialis in hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) macrophages in vitro indicates a lack of chronic infection in hooded seals. Both epidemiology and bacteriological patterns in the hooded seal point to a transient infection of environmental origin, possibly ...

Supplementary winter feeding of semi-domesticated reindeer (<i>Rangifer tarandus tarandus</i>) has become more common in Sweden and Norway due to reindeer pasture fragmentation and climatic conditions. With increased corralling and feeding, often associated with animal stress, increased animal-to-animal contact, and poor hygienic conditions, an altered range of health challenges and diseases may ...

Background - The effects of climate change, loss of pastureland to other land usage and presence of large carnivores are the main reasons for the increase in supplementary feeding of semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) in Fennoscandia over the last decades. Feeding might expose reindeer to stress and increased animal-to-animal contact, leading to an increased risk of infectious ...

Brucellosis is a zoonosis of worldwide distribution with numerous animal host species. Since the novel isolation of Brucella spp. from marine mammals in 1994 the bacteria have been isolated from various marine mammal hosts. The marine mammal reference strains Brucella pinnipedialis 12890 (harbour seal, Phoca vitulina) and Brucella ceti 12891 (harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena) were included in ...

Pathogens can impact host survival, fecundity, and population dynamics even when no obvious disease is observed. Few baseline data on pathogen prevalence and diversity of caribou are available, which hampers our ability to track changes over time and evaluate impacts on caribou health. Archived blood samples collected from ten migratory caribou herds in Canada and two in Greenland were used to test ...

Members of the Pestivirus genus (family <i>Flaviviridae</i>) cause severe and economically important diseases in livestock. Serological studies have revealed the presence of pestiviruses in different cervid species, including wild and semi-domesticated Eurasian tundra reindeer. In this retrospective study, serum samples collected between 2006 and 2008 from 3339 semi-domesticated Eurasian reindeer ...

Background: Previous serological screenings have indicated that Eurasian semi-domesticated tundra reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) in Finnmark, Northern Norway, are exposed to alphaherpesvirus, gammaherpesvirus and pestivirus. Alphaherpesvirus (i.e., Cervid herpesvirus 2; CvHV2) has been identified as the transmissible component of infectious keratoconjunctivitis (IKC). Limited knowledge exists ...