Nowadays, zoos and aquariums, along with the constant advancement of sociocultural moral values, are proactively committed to ensuring and safeguarding cetacean health standards. This entails developing new approaches to health assessments by embracing minimally invasive sampling methods and enhanced animal handling and management, among other aspects. Hence, in the present survey, to appraise skin diseases, the implementation of cytology cell samplers as a non-invasive skin sampling device on 18 bottlenose dolphins housed in two facilities in the Canary Islands during the months of April, October, and December 2019 was performed to isolate cetacean poxvirus in tattoo-like lesions through a real-time PCR-based method using the DNA polymerase gene. Samples were repeatedly collected over time from eleven tattoo-like lesions and from apparently healthy skin to serve as a control for all study animals. From a total of 55 skin samples, detection of the poxvirus was attained in 31 (56.36%); specifically, on 20 of 21 samples collected from tattoo-like lesions (95.23%) and on 11 of 34 samples acquired from apparently healthy skin (32.35%). Correspondingly, the current study constitutes the first report of the isolation of cetacean poxvirus in skin samples without macroscopical signs of tattoo lesions in cetaceans. Likewise, ten of the eleven dolphins that showed tattoo lesions housed in Facility 1 were positive for tattoo skin disease, while four dolphins held in Facility 2 were positive for cetacean poxvirus without ever showing clinical evidence of the disease. This raises the question of whether this pathogen can produce latent infections and whether progression of the disease may depend on environmental stimuli, viral load, or the good health/immunological status of individual animals. Accordingly, further scientific research on cetaceans under human care could provide the knowledge, skills, and resources to understand the host–pathogen dynamics of cetacean poxviruses and their effect on cetaceans’ health.

中文翻译：

---

了解鲸豚痘病毒的宿主-病原体动力学：通过在人类护理下对宽吻海豚 (Tursiops truncatus) 应用重复的非侵入性皮肤取样可实现的方法

如今，随着社会文化道德价值观的不断进步，动物园和水族馆积极致力于确保和维护鲸类动物的健康标准。这需要通过采用微创采样方法和加强动物处理和管理等方面来开发新的健康评估方法。因此，在本次调查中，为了评估皮肤病，在 2019 年 4 月、10 月和 12 月期间对居住在加那利群岛两个设施中的 18 只宽吻海豚实施了细胞学细胞采样器作为非侵入性皮肤采样设备通过使用 DNA 聚合酶基因的基于实时 PCR 的方法，在纹身样病变中分离出鲸豚痘病毒。随着时间的推移，从 11 个纹身样病变和明显健康的皮肤中反复收集样本，作为所有研究动物的对照。从总共 55 个皮肤样本中，有 31 个（56.36%）检测到痘病毒；具体而言，从纹身样病变中采集的 21 个样本中的 20 个 (95.23%) 和从表面健康的皮肤中采集的 34 个样本中的 11 个 (32.35%)。相应地，目前的研究构成了在没有鲸类纹身病变宏观迹象的皮肤样本中分离鲸类痘病毒的第一份报告。同样，设施 1 中的 11 只海豚中有 10 只显示纹身皮肤病呈阳性，而设施 2 中的 4 只海豚呈鲸豚痘病毒阳性，但从未显示出该病的临床证据。这就提出了这样一个问题，即这种病原体是否会产生潜伏感染，以及疾病的进展是否可能取决于环境刺激、病毒载量或个体动物的良好健康/免疫状态。因此，对人类照料下的鲸类进行进一步的科学研究可以提供知识、技能和资源，以了解鲸类痘病毒的宿主-病原体动态及其对鲸类健康的影响。