One Health is the intersection with veterinary care and science, environmental degradation, and human health.  One of the many examples involves the study of middle ear infections in seals, which are often severe and involve the bones of the skull.  This infection is associated with coliform bacteria and an increase in the incidence of this disease in seals could signal environmental pollution with these bacteria.  Otitis media is also a common illness in human children; complications and bone infections are rare but potentially devastating.  It may the environmental role or the unique anatomy of seals which includes a flap that prevents water from entering the ear canal and also prevents drainage from infection, but seals are an excellent disease model for a human disease.  By treating and studying these naturally occurring diseases we hope to benefit the seals, the environment, and human health care.

Dr. Williams address the group at PCCS

Topics ranged from advanced diagnostic techniques, a veterinary continuing education session, and the concepts of One Health, and global surveillance through the use of marine animals.

Dr. Williams addresses the main auditorium

Dr. Dunnigan and David Schofield of NOAA examine the posters

There is a new shell forming under the pink tissue we call the pseudo-shell, this is good news but at this point the new shell is not uniform or sturdy enough to adequately protect Patty.  In fact a large part of what makes a turtle shell protective is the hard covering of the shell which is made of keratin (like our hair and nails), and we have not seen evidence of new growth for this layer, yet.

Additional findings will be made available in Rounds Notes, but in the meantime Patty continues to eat well and as soon as the last dead bone comes off we can take her off antibiotics.  As we approach the one year mark for her rehabilitation it’s also a good time to reflect on the positive effect we’ve had with Patty.  Her back legs are much stronger and she is able to move around her tank.  Her eye’s have cleared and she can see and find food.  She has survived the loss of her shell and we have evidence of new shell growth.  We are also learning about the regenerative properties of turtles in general, so indeed Patty has had a lot to teach us.

…at least for the parasites, thanks to Suzanne Thurman for sending along samples of the acanthocephalan parasite Bolbosoma turbinella from a Sei Whale stranded which stranded Delaware.   This parasite is known from several baleen whales (the big ones), including the humpback, blue (the largest whale), and northern right whale (one of the most endangered whales).  While it may not have caused the stranding the heavy burden would have some effect on the whale. Our lab focuses an parasites and parasitic diseases of stranded marine mammals and sea turtles.