ATLANTA — University of Georgia researchers have identified 19 viruses in Atlantic and Pacific sea turtles, including seven novel viruses, that may pose a risk to threatened and endangered sea turtles.
Scientists in UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine used genetic sequencing to identify the viruses after past sea turtle viral symptoms had proved hard to trace to an exact cause.
The samples showed some viruses that were genetically related to pathogens known to infect aquatic invertebrates and fish.
Researchers also found that seven of the viruses had not been identified before in any species and one belongs to a previously unidentified scientific family of viruses.
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Researchers said a baseline understanding of viral communities in sea turtles could help scientists respond faster during an outbreak instead of starting from scratch to look for a viral cause.
That groundwork could save years of investigative work when an emerging disease affects a vulnerable population. Five of the seven sea turtle species found in the world are threatened or endangered.
“Viral discovery turns unknown unknowns into known unknowns that we can then target for study,” Stanton said. “Most of these viruses may never prove to cause disease, but discovering and cataloging them gives us the foundation to recognize the ones that do and determine whether they pose a meaningful threat to already imperiled sea turtle populations.”
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