HERPESVIRUS PARTICLES ASSOCIATED WITH ORAL AND RESPIRATORY LESIONS INA CALIFORNIA DESERT TORTOISE (GOPHERUS-AGASSIZII)

A 60-year-old captive California desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) which died in August 1990 at the University of California, Davis, Cali fornia (USA), during treatment for colonic impaction had marked caseou s necrosis of the oral cavity, choana, trachea, and lungs. Numerous in tranuclear inclusion bodies and a large number of syncytial giant cell s were seen in the oral cavity and respiratory tract along with bacter ial granulomas. Pasteurella testudinis, Streptococcus veridans, and co agulase-negative Staphilococcus spp. were cultured from the lesions. U sing electron microscopy, herpesvirus particles were observed in intra nuclear inclusions and cytoplasm. Viral stomatitis, tracheitis, and br onchopneumonia complicated by bacterial infection were diagnosed. Alth ough respiratory disease is common in desert tortoises, this is believ ed to be the first report of association with a viral infection.