Morbilliviral dermatitis in seals

A juvenile female hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) and a juvenile male har p seal (Phoca groenlandica) stranded separately on the New Jersey (USA) coa st and were taken to a marine mammal rehabilitation center. Both were letha rgic and emaciated, had dermatitis, and died. Histologic skin lesions in th e seals were similar and consisted of epidermal and follicular epithelial h yperplasia, hyperkeratosis, degeneration, and necrosis. The most distinctiv e finding was extensive syncytial zones bounded superficially by hyperkerat osis and deeply by hyperplastic basal cells. Eosinophilic intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies were present in epithelial cells. Morbilliviral antigen wa s demonstrated in the skin lesions by immunohistochemistry. Phocine distemp er virus was detected in the skin by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and a phocine distemper virus-specific probe using the Southern b lot technique. This is the first report of morbilliviral dermatitis in mari ne mammals.