Abstract
In the last eight years, most of the strandings in the Pacific coast of Costa Rica have been of striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) due the infection of Brucella ceti in the Central Nervous System (CNS).1,2,3,4 On December 12th of 2012, one new case of striped dolphin was attended. The animal had swimming problems and was assisted several times by locals, to return to the ocean, but in the end, the animal restranded. Due to the severe neurological symptoms and a strong positive reaction of rose Bengal agglutination test, the animal was euthanized. During necropsy an early pregnancy was observed and different samples were collected from the adult and the fetus, including tissues from central nervous system, reticulo-endothelial system and reproductive system as well as placenta and fetal fluids. B. ceti was cultured from the adult cerebro-spinal fluid and brain. Currently in the literature cetaceans are the only marine mammal from which isolations of B. ceti have been obtained from cerebro-spinal fluid and brain, although in other species these specific samples are not collected routinely for culture of Brucella spp. Worldwide there are 53 species of marine mammal described as seropositive for brucellae but only in 18 of these species have Brucella spp. been isolated or identified in polymerase chain reaction assays.4 Therefore samples of the CNS in addition to classical tissues for Brucella culture should be included routinely for stranded animals.
Acknowledgements
We want to thank the people who helped during strandings of cetaceans in coastal areas of Costa Rica: Coastguard, Fire Department, Emergency Service (911), personnel from PIET and the Pathology Department of EMV-UNA, and the National Service of Animal Health (SENASA), Costa Rica.
* Presenting author
Literature Cited
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