Integumental ulcerative disease in a loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta at the Bermuda Aquarium: microbiology and histopathology

A large loggerhead turtle at the Bermuda Aquarium was afflicted with severe lntegumental necrosis which falled to respond to standard treatments. Gross lesions were subcutaneous and creamy white areas and haelnorrhagic ulcerations of the s k ~ n wlth tissue destruction, erythrema and exudation. A mixed ~nfection of Acinetobacter calcoacet~cus var Lwoffi, Ac~netobacter-like, Pasteurella-llke, Proteus-like, and Salmonella-llke stralns, Vjbrio alg~nolyticus, V parahaemolyticus, a non-ident~fied myxobacterial strain and an irregularly branched, septate fungus occurred in the leslons Histopathological features were localized epidermal proliferation and destruction, formation of granulation tissue, increased vascularization of the dermis underlying affected epidermis, and changes in melanophore, lymphocyte and eosinophilic granulocyte abundance. These results conflrm findings of previous studies that mixed Infections of known pathogens plus other potentially harmful aquatic heterotrophs are associated with sea turtle skin diseases. Poss~bly, poor environmental quality was a major factor that exacerbated thls condition by debilitat~on of the afflicted turtle.