Seal bites at sub-Antarctic Marion Island: Incidence, outcomes and treatment recommendations

Journal of the South African Veterinary Association

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Seal bites at sub-Antarctic Marion Island: Incidence, outcomes and treatment recommendations
 
Creator Reisinger, Ryan R. Penfold, Miles Bester, Marthán N. Steenkamp, Gerhard
 
Subject Veterinary Science marine mammal; bite; treatment; infection; zoonoses
Description Seal biologists at Marion Island (Southern Ocean) are in frequent contact with seals. During research activities, biologists may be bitten by seals, yet no standardised protocol for treating such bites is in place. Information on 22 seal bite cases at Marion Island was collected. Treatment of these bites varied, reflecting a need for standardised protocols for the treatment of bites. Recommendations for the in-field treatment of bites are presented. Five of the 22 cases had some symptoms which resembled ‘seal finger’ – a zoonotic infection, usually of the hands, that is contracted after a person comes into contact with tissues of seals or is bitten by one. However, in four of these cases, symptoms subsided within 4 days without antibiotic treatment; in the fifth case antibiotics were administered and symptoms subsided in 4 days. There is little evidence of the occurrence of seal finger at Marion Island, but this deserves further investigation.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor South African Department of Science and Technology National Research Foundation Department of Environmental Affairs
Date 2020-03-24
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/jsava.v91i0.1720
 
Source Journal of the South African Veterinary Association; Vol 91 (2020); 6 pages 2224-9435 1019-9128
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://journals.jsava.aosis.co.za/index.php/jsava/article/view/1720/2479 https://journals.jsava.aosis.co.za/index.php/jsava/article/view/1720/2478 https://journals.jsava.aosis.co.za/index.php/jsava/article/view/1720/2480 https://journals.jsava.aosis.co.za/index.php/jsava/article/view/1720/2477
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Ryan R. Reisinger, Miles Penfold, Marthán N. Bester, Gerhard Steenkamp https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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