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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 2001, p. 3572-3577, Vol. 39, No. 10
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.10.3572-3577.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Detection of Antibodies to a Disease-Associated Herpesvirus of the Green Turtle, Chelonia mydas

Sadie S. Coberley,¹ Lawrence H. Herbst,² Daniel R. Brown,³ Llewellyn M. Ehrhart,⁴ Dean A. Bagley,⁴ Susan A. Schaf,⁵ Ritchie H. Moretti,⁵ Elliott R. Jacobson,⁶ and Paul A. Klein^7,*

Interdisciplinary Program in Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32610¹; Department of Pathology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461²; Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611³; Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816⁴; Hidden Harbor Marine Environmental Project, The Turtle Hospital, Marathon, Florida 33050⁵; Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611⁶; and Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32610⁷

Received 16 March 2001/Returned for modification 18 June 2001/Accepted 23 July 2001

Lung-eye-trachea disease-associated herpesvirus (LETV) is linked with morbidity and mortality in mariculture-reared green turtles, but its prevalence among and impact on wild marine turtle populations is unknown. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for detection of anti-LETV antibodies and could distinguish LETV-exposed green turtles from those with antibodies to fibropapillomatosis-associated herpesvirus (FPHV). Plasma from two captive-reared green turtles immunized with inactivated LETV served as positive controls. Plasma from 42 healthy captive-reared green turtles and plasma from 30 captive-reared green turtles with experimentally induced fibropapillomatosis (FP) and anti-FPHV antibodies had low ELISA values on LETV antigen. A survey of 19 wild green turtles with and 27 without FP (with and without anti-FPHV antibodies, respectively) identified individuals with antibodies to LETV regardless of their FP status. The seroprevalence of LETV infection was 13%. The presence of antibodies to LETV in plasma samples was confirmed by Western blot and immunohistochemical analyses. These results are the first to suggest that wild Florida green turtles are exposed to LETV or to an antigenically closely related herpesvirus(es) other than FPHV and that FPHV and LETV infections are most likely independent events. This is the first ELISA developed to detect antibodies for a specific herpesvirus infection of marine turtles. The specificity of this ELISA for LETV (ability to distinguish LETV from FPHV) makes it valuable for detecting exposure to this specific herpesvirus and enhances our ability to conduct seroepidemiological studies of these disease-associated agents in marine turtles.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida, Box 100275, Gainesville, FL 32610-0275. Phone: (352) 392-2608. Fax: (352) 392-1619. E-mail: paklein{at}ufl.edu.

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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 2001, p. 3572-3577, Vol. 39, No. 10
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.10.3572-3577.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

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• Coberley, S. S., Condit, R. C., Herbst, L. H., Klein, P. A. (2002). Identification and Expression of Immunogenic Proteins of a Disease-Associated Marine Turtle Herpesvirus. J. Virol. 76: 10553-10558 [Abstract] [Full Text]