A review of pathology in skeletons of Peale?s dolphin, Lagenorhynchus australis, from southern South America

SAN MARTÍN, A.; BOY, C.C.; MACNIE, S.V.; GOODALL, R.N.P.

DISEASES OF AQUATIC ORGANISMS

INTER-RESEARCH

Lugar: Oldendorf/Luhe; Año: 2016 vol. 120 p. 9 - 15

0177-5103

Peale?s dolphin, Lagenorynchus australis, is frequentlyseen off the coast of southern South America, where it feeds among coastal kelpbeds and occasionally stranding. We searched for macroscopic evidence ofskeletal lesions on 78 specimens Peale?s dolphin from two museum collections,which represents almost all the specie?s skeletons known in collectionsworldwide Thirty-two specimens (41%) had some type of osteological abnormalities.With 21 cases (66%) congenital deformations were the most predominantabnormalities found. Acquired lesions included a) induced trauma: abnormalcurvature (five specimens) and fractures (two specimens), b) infectiousdiseases: spondylo-osteomyelitis (three specimens) and c) degenerativediseases: exostoses (eight specimens) and spondylosis deformans (four specimens).It is noteworthy that all these animals died incidentally in gillnetentanglement and were presumably healthy at the moment of death. The effectthat different osseous lesions may have on the animal?s quality of life maydepend on the area of the spine affected and the number of vertebrae involved.