Abstract

The Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Health and Risk Assessment (HERA) project is a comprehensive, integrated, multi-disciplinary research program designed to assess environmental and anthropogenic stressors, as well as the health and long-term viability of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins (BD). Health and risk assessments of dolphin populations are especially critical in areas where stocks are depleted or show signs of epidemic disease and/or high mortality, and in areas where the habitat is being intensely altered or impacted by human influences. Toward this goal, the HERA program and the University of Florida's Wildlife and Aquatic Veterinary Disease Laboratory (WAVDL) teamed up to conduct a viral survey of Indian River Lagoon bottlenose dolphins.

As part of the HERA project, Indian River BD were sampled during health assessments from 2015. Serum, gastric, and urine samples were shipped to WAVDL where validated conventional and quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays were used to survey samples for a wide variety of known marine mammal viruses. Additionally, a viral metagenomic approach using an Illumina MiSeq platform resulted in the discovery of a novel RNA virus within the family Flaviviridae in serum samples. The nearly complete genome (9,649 bp) was recovered and phylogenetic and phenetic analyses based on the deduced amino acid polyprotein sequences revealed the BD virus is a novel Pegivirus branching near equine and porcine pegiviruses (hereafter referred to as the Bottlenose Dolphin Pegivirus; BDPgV). The amino acid sequence similarity of the BDPgV ranged from 50.3–53.8%, lower than the recently proposed species demarcation threshold (69%).¹ Thus, we propose the BDPgV for consideration as a new species, to be known formally as Pegivirus L, pending acceptance by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. We are currently developing BDPgV specific assays to determine the prevalence (quantitative PCR and Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay) and any association with disease (in situ hybridization) in wild and managed BD populations.

Acknowledgements

The HERA project was conducted under NMFS permit number 14352-02 issued to Dr. Gregory D. Bossart. This project was funded by the Georgia Aquarium's Research and Conservation Program.

* Presenting author
+ Student presenter

Literature Cited

1.  Smith DB, Becher P, Bukh J, EA, Gould G, Meyers T, Monath et al. 2016. Proposed update to the taxonomy of the genera Hepacivirus and Pegivirus within the Flaviviridae family. J Gen Virol. 97:2894–2907.