Coinfection by Ureaplasma spp., Photobacterium damselae and an Actinomyces-like microorganism in a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) with pleuropneumonia stranded along the Adriatic coast of Italy

Res Vet Sci. 2016 Apr:105:111-4. doi: 10.1016/j.rvsc.2016.01.022. Epub 2016 Feb 4.

Abstract

A case of pleuropneumonia is reported in an adult male bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) found stranded in 2014 along the Central Adriatic coast of Italy. A severe pyogranulomatous pneumonia and thoracic lymphadenopathy were present at necropsy. Numerous Splendore-Hoeppli bodies were found microscopically scattered throughout the lung. Histochemical evidence of Actinomyces-like organisms was obtained from the pulmonary parenchyma, with a strain of Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida and Ureaplasma spp. being also isolated from the same tissue. For the latter, a genome fragment of approximately 1400 bp from the 16s rDNA was amplified and sequenced. BLAST analysis revealed 100% identity with an uncultured Ureaplasma spp. (JQ193826.1).

Keywords: Actinomyces; Adriatic Sea; Bottlenose dolphin; Photobacterium damselae; Pleuropneumonia; Ureaplasma spp..

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bottle-Nosed Dolphin*
  • Coinfection / microbiology
  • Coinfection / veterinary*
  • Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / microbiology
  • Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / veterinary*
  • Italy
  • Male
  • Mediterranean Sea / epidemiology
  • Photobacterium*
  • Pleuropneumonia / epidemiology
  • Pleuropneumonia / microbiology
  • Pleuropneumonia / veterinary*
  • RNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
  • Ureaplasma*

Substances

  • RNA, Bacterial
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S