Wildlife Conservation Society, Zoological Health Program, Bronx, NY 10460, USA,
Wildlife Conservation Society, Zoological Health Program, Bronx, NY 10460, USA.
J Zoo Wildl Med. 2023 Jul;54(2):332-335. doi: 10.1638/2022-0122.
The endemic Grand Cayman or blue iguana () is endangered. Beginning in 2015 significant morbidity and mortality occurred in captive and wild blue iguanas within Grand Cayman's Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park (QEIIBP). Investigation identified a novel sp., provisionally named sp. Grand Cayman Blue Iguana 1 (GCBI1), as the cause. Invasive green iguanas () are believed to play a role in GCBI1 transmission to the blue iguana; however, the origin and transmission pathways have not been determined. To assess the likelihood of blue iguanas asymptomatically harboring GCBI1, in May 2022 population-level screening of captive blue iguanas at QEIIBP was conducted on half ( = 102) of the captive blue iguana population ( = 201) including half of each age class. sp. GCBI1 is closely related to a chelonian sp. and 10 sympatric wild north Antillean sliders () were sampled in October 2019. Combined choana/cloacal swabs were screened by a GCBI1-specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay. All samples were negative, suggesting that GCBI1 is not present asymptomatically in the captive blue iguana population or in north Antillean sliders. These results provide support for the hypothesis that GCBI1 is periodically introduced to captive and wild blue iguanas from another species or source.
开曼群岛本土或蓝鬣蜥（）处于濒危状态。自 2015 年以来，开曼群岛伊丽莎白二世女王植物园（QEIIBP）内的圈养和野生蓝鬣蜥出现了大量发病和死亡病例。调查确定了一种新型 sp.，暂时命名为 sp. 开曼群岛蓝鬣蜥 1（GCBI1），是该病的病因。入侵的绿鬣蜥（）被认为在 GCBI1 向蓝鬣蜥传播中起作用；然而，其起源和传播途径尚未确定。为评估蓝鬣蜥是否无症状携带 GCBI1，2022 年 5 月，在 QEIIBP 对圈养蓝鬣蜥进行了人群水平筛查，对圈养蓝鬣蜥种群的一半（=102）进行了筛查，包括每个年龄组的一半（=201）。sp. GCBI1 与龟鳖 sp. 密切相关，2019 年 10 月对 10 只同域的野生北安的列斯滑龟（）进行了采样。通过 GCBI1 特异性定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）检测对 choana/cloacal 拭子进行了筛查。所有样本均为阴性，这表明 GCBI1 不在圈养蓝鬣蜥种群或北安的列斯滑龟中无症状存在。这些结果支持了这样一种假设，即 GCBI1 周期性地从另一种物种或来源引入圈养和野生蓝鬣蜥。
