The Current State of Measures Against Erysipelas Diseases at Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 141 - 145
• Main Authors: OHTSU, Dai, OHTSUBO, Hiromi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese; English
• Published: Japanese Society of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 20.12.2019
• Subjects: aquarium; cetacean; erysipelas; rhomboid dermal plaques; vaccine
• ISSN: 1342-6133; 2185-744X
• DOI: 10.5686/jjzwm.24.141

In Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, we have experienced a few cases of swine erysipelas infection to our live collection of cetacean specimens since we established our facility in 1993. Because this infectious disease is known as a zoonosis and also we have lost some of our specimen by acute sepsis from this, we have been vaccinating our specimens with inactivated vaccine since 2003 （interrupted vaccination temporarily from 2004 to 2006）. As of September 2018, we have successfully vaccinated 25 specimens over 5 species out of 30, specimens over 5 species in our collection. We have been using inactivated vaccine contains alkali treated somatic antigen of swine erysipelas strain M2 （serotype 2） and tocopherol acetate adjuvant （PORCILIS® ERY, MSD Animal Health Co., Ltd.）. Every six months, each specimen received 2ml of vaccine injected into muscle around dorsal fin regardless of species or body weight. All specimens except for the youngest one born last year were trained to accept vaccination with voluntary behavior, so that we are able to give them shots without holding animals. Since we started vaccination program, we have not recorded swain erysipelas infection on our collection and scarcely developed any side reactions.