Rare sea turtles in their dozens treated for tumours at animal hospital

A mystery disease is sweeping through the endangered green sea turtle population, it has been revealed. Dozens of young turtles are being operated on every month at America’s leading rescue centre to remove tumours. One young turtle has an underbelly cluttered with tumors, some as big as golf balls. This turtle, about two years old and too young for the staff to know yet whether it is male or female, is infected with fibropapillomatosis, a potentially deadly disease caused by a type of herpes virus.

When I first started here 20 years ago, I would do six to eight of these a month. Now we are doing six to eight a week.

Vet Doug Mader

Experts still don’t understand quite how the virus spreads, or what causes it, though some research has pointed to agricultural runoff, pollution and global warming. As the population of green sea turtles rebounds in and around the Florida Keys, cases of fibropapillomatosis have exploded too, filling the corridors of the United States’ oldest rescue and rehab facility, known simply as the Turtle Hospital. Each turtle can require several operations to remove all the tumors, which cover their necks, underbellies, and eyes, blinding them and making it hard for them to find food. Fibropapillomatosis was first documented in sea turtles in the 1930s, and is pervasive in warm waters around the world.

I have this horrible feeling that as the oceans warm we are going to see more and more disease.

Doug Mader

sea turtle