HELICOBACTER SCREENING OF GRAND CAYMAN BLUE IGUANA () AND NORTH ANTILLEAN SLIDER () ON GRAND CAYMAN, CAYMAN ISLANDS.

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.