Paolo Martelli

• DVM, CertZooMed
• Managing Director at Ocean Park Hong Kong

Background Anencephaly is a deadly type of cephalic axial skeletal and neural disorder with a multifactorial aetiology that causes the failure of the rostral neuropore closure, compromising the formation of the neural folds, basicranium, and neurocranium. In cetaceans, there is only one report of this fetal abnormality, dated in late 1991, in a mal...

Background Early in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) involved in the illegal wildlife trade in mainland China were identified as hosts of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoVs). Although it is unconfirmed whether pangolins or other traded wildlife served as intermediate...

Cognitive enrichments have gained popularity in the past two decades in both farm animal and zoological settings. In this study, we present a cognitive enrichment device that, for the first time, allowed testing for prosocial food-sharing actions in dolphins. The device was made of a PVC tube and two caps with rope handles; one handle was fixed to...

Introduction Crocodilians have significant ecological, conservational, and economic roles. They are also commonly raised for commercial purposes and kept as zoological specimens. Although ultrasonography has been used in zoological contexts for health assessments of crocodilians, published studies on a detailed ultrasonography protocol and ultrason...

Habitat use monitoring is necessary for a comprehensive understanding of the biological and psychological requirements of animals under human care, facilitating improved exhibit designs and promoting animal welfare. Current studies focused on the space use of the exhibit while limited studies examined the pathway use of the zoo‐housed animals. This...

Phallic malformations directly impact crocodilian copulatory function and thus could impact reproductive success in individual animals. This case series characterizes malformations observed and the implied reproductive consequences. We assessed a range of phallic malformations observed in saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), Nile crocodile (Cr...

Simple Summary In animals undergoing veterinary treatment, including therapeutic, quarantine and preventative medicine, their physiology and behaviour are derailed from their normal states and the animal’s choices and comfort are de facto limited. Traditional paradigms of animal welfare do not apply perfectly to animals under veterinary care, inclu...

Simple Summary Environmental enrichments are essential tools for providing appropriate welfare conditions for animals under human care by stimulating mental and physical activity. Enrichment programmes in zoos and aquariums have developed rapidly over the past two decades, especially for charismatic mammal and bird species. However, when it comes t...

Background: The Sunda pangolin, Manis javanica Desmarest, 1822, is a critically endangered species of pangolin that occurs from Indonesia to southern China. Knowledge of the biology and ecology of M. javanica is limited, however there have been previous reports of parasites, including nematodes, protozoans, ticks, and a cestode. Methods: An illegal...

Background Vessel collision induces blunt and sharp force traumas to aquatic animals and is a leading anthropogenic impact affecting cetaceans worldwide. Vessel collision is an important threat affecting vulnerable coastal cetaceans such as the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) which reside in coastal waters of Hong Kong amongst heav...

In 2015, nearly 4000 critically endangered Palawan forest turtles (Siebenrockiella leytensis) were confiscated on their native island of Palawan in the Philippines after being illegally harvested for the international wildlife trade. Local conservation biologists and an international team of veterinary and husbandry personnel evaluated, treated, an...

A geriatric female giant panda developed grave signs of illness and was diagnosed with suspected hepatobiliary tract obstruction or other severe hepatic disease such as advanced cholangiohepatitis. The giant panda was euthanized and post mortem computed tomography was performed prior to necropsy. Common bile duct obstruction at the major duodenal p...

The objectives of this study were to assess the serological response to rabies vaccination in Hong Kong macaques and provide evidence-based recommendations for the vaccination interval implemented by the Government of Hong Kong. An inactivated rabies vaccine was administered subcutaneously to captured macaques under a mass sterilization program in...

Many members of the Pangolin Specialist Group and other experts contributed their expertise to this document. The Pangolin Specialist Group particularly thanks the following individuals for their contribution: Gary Ades, Prince Pascal Agro, Copper Aiken-Palmer, Daryl Bosu, Christopher Brown, Dan Challender, Ju lian Chong, Ellen Connelly, Sarah Craw...

Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease that can affect all mammals. Following the directives of the rabies ordinance of the Government of Hong Kong, all wild macaques captured under an ongoing sterilization program (since 2000) were vaccinated against rabies. The main objective of this study was to assess the serological response to rabies vaccination...

Significance For decades, the propulsion of sperms has been traditionally attributed to the beating or rotating of the soft tails. However, this work disclosed an unusual swimming model of Ray sperms whose propulsion is from not only the helical tail but also the unique spiral head (i.e., the head can contribute ∼31% of the force in propulsion). Su...

In addition to human cases, cases of COVID-19 in captive animals and pets are increasingly reported. This raises the concern for two-way COVID-19 transmission between humans and animals. Here, we developed a SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein-based competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) for serodiagnosis of COVID-19 which can theoretic...

A 13-year-old Bornean orangutan diagnosed with life threatening Streptococcus pyogenes broncho-pneumonia was kept in a state of deep sedation for 20 days via continuous intra-venous (IV) infusion of zolazepam -tiletamine and IV haloperidol to allow consistent IV administration of ceftazidime and gatifloxacine. The use of long-term deep sedation all...

Environmental DNA (eDNA) detection method is considered as a new survey tool for the wildlife aquatic animals in recent years. To further investigate the Hong Kong newt (Paramesotriton hongkongensis) population distribution in the wild, we thus aimed to design a set of specific primers and TaqMan probe and verify the feasibility of this eDNA method...

Reproductive hormones in serum concentrations of progesterone, estradiol and testosterone in female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus, n = 12) housed in Ocean Park Hong Kong were investigated in the present study. Results showed that, onset of puberty of captive Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins was at 5 y while sexual maturity is a...

Basic ecological understanding is important for effective management of introduced species. If the species is rare or threatened in its native ranges, ecological knowledge gained from its introduced ranges may offer useful information for conservation. We radio-tracked 12 adult Physignathus cocincinus in Hong Kong, where it is introduced, to invest...

Here we report on the infection of captive crested geckos Correlophus ciliatus Guichenot (Reptilia: Diplodactylidae), with adults of the ascaridoid nematode, Hexametra angusticaecoides Chabaud & Brygoo, 1960 (Ascarididae). A population of captive crested geckoes became ill and died within a short period of time. Nematodes were recovered from the cr...

Slow lorises are enigmatic animal that represent the only venomous primate lineage. Their defensive secretions have received little attention. In this study we determined the full length sequence of the protein secreted by their unique brachial glands. The full length sequences displayed homology to the main allergenic protein present in cat dander...

We report influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection in a captive giant panda in Hong Kong. The viral load peaked on day 1 and became undetectable on day 5, and an antibody response developed. Genome analysis showed 99.3%-99.9% nucleotide identity between the virus and influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus circulating in Hong Kong.

Background Nocardiosis is often a multi-systemic disease in humans and other mammals. Nocardiosis in birds is uncommon. Laboratory identification of Nocardia to the species level is difficult by traditional phenotypic methods based on biochemical reactions and hydrolysis tests, and is most accurately performed by sequencing multiple gene targets....

No other species attracts more international resources, public attention, and protracted controversies over its intraspecific taxonomy than the tiger (Panthera tigris) [1, 2]. Today, fewer than 4,000 free-ranging tigers survive, covering only 7% of their historical range, and debates persist over whether they comprise six, five, or two subspecies [...

While snake venoms have been the subject of intense study, comparatively little work has been done on lizard venoms. In this study, we have examined the structural and functional diversification of anguimorph lizard venoms and associated toxins, and related these results to dentition and predatory ecology. Venom composition was shown to be highly v...

Two adult sibling red-handed tamarins ( Saguinus midas) presented with weight loss and multifocal skin masses. A skin biopsy revealed pyogranulomatous dermatitis with intrafollicular Demodex sp. mites. Subsequent skin scrapes confirmed the presence of live mites within lesions. Initial treatment with topical and oral ivermectin was unsuccessful, an...

In this study, two novel noroviruses (NoVs) were discovered from faecal samples from California sea lions from an oceanarium in Hong Kong, and named California sea lion NoV 1 (Csl/NoV1) and California sea lion NoV 2 (Csl/NoV2). Whole-genome sequencing showed that the genome organization and amino acid motifs of both Csl/NoV1 and Csl/NoV2 were typic...

Burkholderia pseudomallei is the cause of melioidosis, a potentially serious and fatal disease characterized by community-acquired pneumonia and/or sepsis mainly in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, and high case-fatality rates of up to 19% are observed in endemic areas (1).

Contrast radiology is performed to illustrate individual segments of the gastrointestinal tract of reptiles, to identify radiolucent foreign bodies and to distinguish between intra- and extraluminal masses. With notable exceptions, such as in gout, radiography of the heart is of limited diagnostic significance; it is better evaluated with other ima...

The Chinese crocodile lizard, Shinisaurus crocodilurus, is the only living representative of the monotypic family Shinisauridae under the order Squamata. It is an obligate semi-aquatic, viviparous, diurnal species restricted to specific portions of mountainous locations in southwestern China and northeastern Vietnam. However, in the past several de...

The White-lipped Pit Viper (Trimeresurus albolabris) is broadly distributed through South and Southeast Asia, and very little is known about the natural history of the species. In this study, we report on the ecology, demography, reproductive states, and growth rates of T. albolabris in Hong Kong, China. The sex ratio is even in Trimeresurus albola...

From July 2011 to June 2012, 31 out of 33 green anaconda juveniles from an oceanarium in Hong Kong died over a 12-month period. These anacondas were progeny of a female anaconda purchased from Japan and added to the collection in May 2011. The juvenile anacondas were born in July 2011. A novel paramyxovirus, named anaconda paramyxovirus (AnaPV), wa...

In a molecular epidemiology study using 791 fecal samples collected from different terrestrial and marine mammals in Hong Kong, genogroup I picobirnaviruses (PBVs) were positive by RT-PCR targeting the partial RdRp gene in specimens from five cattle, six monkeys, 17 horses, nine pigs, one rabbit, one dog, and 12 California sea lions, with 11, 9, 23...

Translocation of ‘nuisance’ snakes is frequently employed on a large scale in densely populated areas in order to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. However, the methods used are often applied haphazardly and are rarely evaluated, especially in tropical Asia. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of long-distance translocation on the...

In 2002 a 23-yr-old female giant panda ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca ) presented with left hind limb lameness presumably due to osteoarthritis. For the next five years, arthritic episodes were managed with the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) carprofen at 2 mg/kg p.o. s.i.d., then reduced to 1 mg/kg p.o. s.i.d. and withdrawn. Radiographs reve...

Burkholderia pseudomallei is an emerging pathogen that causes melioidosis, a serious and potentially fatal disease which requires prolonged antibiotics to prevent relapse. However, diagnosis of melioidosis can be difficult, especially in culture-negative cases. While metabolomics represents an uprising tool for studying infectious diseases, there w...

Melioidosis, caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, is an emerging infectious disease with an expanding geographical distribution. Although assessment of the environmental load of B. pseudomallei is important for risk assessment in humans or animals in endemic areas, traditional methods of bacterial culture for isolation have low sensitivities and ar...

Since July 2011, 31 green anaconda (Eunectes murinus) juveniles from an oceanarium in Hong Kong died over a 12-month period. Necropsy revealed at least two of the following features in 23 necropsies: dermatitis, severe pan-nephritis and severe systemic multi-organ necrotizing inflammation. Histopathological examination revealed severe necrotizing i...

The dynamic geological and climatological history of Southeast Asia has spawned a complex array of ecosystems and 12 of the 37 cat species, making it the most felid-rich region in the world. To examine evolutionary histories of these poorly-known faunas, we compared phylogeography of six species (leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis, fishing cat P....

While gammacoronaviruses mainly comprise infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and its closely related bird coronaviruses (CoVs), the only mammalian gammacoronavirus was discovered from a white beluga whale (beluga whale CoV [BWCoV] SW1) in 2008. In this study, we discovered a novel gammacoronavirus from fecal samples from three Indo-Pacific bottlenose...

A 20-yr-old African fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus) presented with a slowly growing mass located on the dorsum at the level of the last thoracic vertebrae. The mass was hard, 10 cm in diameter, and not adherent to the underlying tissues. Multiple biopsies were collected for histopathology and revealed extensive areas of necrosis, small nodules of...

Objectives: Dental plaque microbiome has direct relevance to the etiology of dental diseases such as dental caries and periodontitis. However, there are very little metagenomic data available on the compositions of animal dental plaques. Making use of massively parallel DNA sequencing, the present study focused on the comprehensive characterization...

Intestinal volvulus was recognized as the cause of death in 18 cetaceans, including 8 species of toothed whales (suborder Odontoceti). Cases originated from 11 institutions from around the world and included both captive (n = 9) and free-ranging (n = 9) animals. When the clinical history was available (n = 9), animals consistently demonstrated acut...

Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis, 24 lioidosis, a serious disease endemic in southeast Asia.…

We discovered a novel otarine picobirnavirus in fecal samples of California sea lions. Its genome contains a large segment with two open reading frames (ORFs), ORF1 encoding a putative protein of 163 amino acids with unknown function and ORF2 encoding capsid protein, and a small segment with one ORF encoding RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.

GenBank Accession Numbers JQ776551, JQ776552 represent sequences from the 2 segments of California sea lion picobirnavirus.

GenBank Accession Numbers JQ776551, JQ776552 represent sequences from the 2 segments of California sea lion picobirnavirus.

Burkholderia pseudomallei, Burkholderia thailandensis, and the Burkholderia cepacia complex differ greatly in pathogenicity and epidemiology. Yet, they are occasionally misidentified by biochemical profiling, and even 16S rRNA gene sequencing may not offer adequate discrimination between certain species groups. Using the 23 B. pseudomallei, four B....

The disposition kinetics of enrofloxacin at a single dose of 5 mg/kg body weight were determined in clinically healthy captive-reared estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) after intravenous (i.v.), intramuscular (i.m.), and oral (p.o.) administration. Enrofloxacin plasma concentrations were determined by diode array detection-high-performance l...

The human genome project has been recently complemented by whole-genome assessment sequence of 32 mammals and 24 nonmammalian vertebrate species suitable for comparative genomic analyses. Here we anticipate a precipitous drop in costs and increase in sequencing efficiency, with concomitant development of improved annotation technology and, therefor...

The predatory ecology of Varanus komodoensis (Komodo Dragon) has been a subject of long-standing interest and considerable conjecture. Here, we investigate the roles and potential interplay between cranial mechanics, toxic bacteria, and venom. Our analyses point to the presence of a sophisticated combined-arsenal killing apparatus. We find that the...

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) causes AIDS in the domestic cat (Felis catus) but has not been explicitly associated with AIDS pathology in any of the eight free-ranging species of Felidae that are endemic with circulating FIV strains. African lion (Panthera leo) populations are infected with lion-specific FIV strains (FIVple), yet there remain...

Pangolins are strange mammals having atypical morphological characteristics in part resulting from a highly specialized diet of ants and termites. Curiously, the Pholidota have as sister group the Carnivora, with which they share a common ancestor around 70 million years ago. Pangolins are found into two distinct geographical regions: Africa and As...

Tigers (Panthera tigris) are disappearing rapidly from the wild, from over 100,000 in the 1900s to as few as 3000. Javan (P.t. sondaica), Bali (P.t. balica), and Caspian (P.t. virgata) subspecies are extinct, whereas the South China tiger (P.t. amoyensis) persists only in zoos. By contrast, captive tigers are flourishing, with 15,000-20,000 individ...

A greater blue-eared glossy starling Lamprotornis chalybaeus Ehrenburg from a large flight aviary in Hong Kong was found on post mortem to be infected with Plasmodium octamerium Manwell, 1968, Plasmodium cf. relictum (Grassi et Feletti, 1891) and Haemoproteus cf. pastoris Mello, 1935. Descriptions of their morphology are provided as none of the exa...

IntroductionSection I-AfricaSection II-IndiaSection III-Indochina and BangladeshSection IV-IndonesiaSection V-MalaysiaSection VI-MyanmarSection VII-NepalSection VIII-Sri Lanka

Among the 37 living species of Felidae, the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) is generally classified as a monotypic genus basal to the Panthera lineage of great cats. This secretive, mid-sized (16-23 kg) carnivore, now severely endangered, is traditionally subdivided into four southeast Asian subspecies (Figure 1A). We used molecular genetic met...

Thirty-four polymorphic dinucleotide microsatellite loci were developed in the Malayan pangolin Manis javanica. Of the 34 markers, 32 and 18 were also amplified, respectively, in the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) and the African tree pangolin (Manis tricuspis). Analysis of 24 Malayan, 12 Chinese and 2 African tree pangolins showed high leve...

Bayesian Population Structure Analysis of 111 Tigers Data obtained from microsatellite genotype and mitochondrial haplotype data were analyzed using STRUCTURE (Pritchard et al. 2000). Simulations were set at 50,000 burn-in period followed by 106 replicates. Each individual is represented by a thin vertical bar, which is partitioned into K colored s...

Bayesian Clustering Analyses for Tiger Microsatellite and Mitochondrial Data (59 KB DOC).

Phylogenetic Relationships among the Individual Tigers from Composite Microsatellite Genotypes of 30 Loci Branches of the same color represent tiger individuals of the same classically named subspecies. NJ tree constructed based on kinship coefficient (Dkf) with the (1 – kf) option in MICROSAT (Minch et al. 1995). Numbers are individual Pti codes (...

Eight traditional subspecies of tiger (Panthera tigris),of which three recently became extinct, are commonly recognized on the basis of geographic isolation and morphological characteristics. To investigate the species' evolutionary history and to establish objective methods for subspecies recognition, voucher specimens of blood, skin, hair, and/or...

The purpose of our research was to explore the limits of rat-python-Sarcocystis distribution among rats on the offshore tropical islands of Singapore, and to examine the effect of island size, insular isolation, landscape peculiarities and anthropogenic disturbance. Commensal rats (Rattus rattus) inhabited all of these islands, regardless of the is...

Production of genetically identical non-human primates through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) can provide diseased genotypes for research and clarify embryonic stem cell potentials. Understanding the cellular and molecular changes in SCNT is crucial to its success. Thus the changes in the first cell cycle of reconstructed zygotes after nuclea...

After presenting the specific macroscopic and microscopic structure of the pancreas in Pythonidae (Part 1, Kleintierpraxis 47, 651-657, 2002), we now like to focus on the diseases of this organ and their clinical importance in snakes as a whole, and several short case reports will support this approach. The specific topics referred to are: - metabo...

The evolution of the venomous function of snakes and the diversification of the toxins has been of tremendous research interest and considerable debate. It has become recently evident that the evolution of the toxins in the advanced snakes (Colubroidea) predated the evolution of the advanced, front-fanged delivery mechanisms. Historically, the veno...

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with frozen-thawed epididymal spermatozoa was performed in the cynomolgus monkey (Macacafascicularis) to produce embryos in vitro. Eleven sexually mature females were hyperstimulated with an GnRH agonist (1.8 mg active triptorelin per 2 kg body weight), followed (2 weeks later) by rFSH (37.5 IU per 2 kg daily...

The macroscopic and microscopic structure of the pancreas in reptiles is explained first from a comparative point of view, whereby the problem of numerous structural variations of this organ in snakes is discussed. A differentiated description of the specific anatomy and histology of the pancreas in the reticulated python is given subsequently, and...

Mainly based on practical experiences, this article will give an overall view of most of the different methods known that are used to euthanise snakes. The main intention of this paper is, however, to explain why certain still used methods are outdated and cruel, and therefore others are more preferable. Refrigerating snakes to death by placing the...

Three 4-month-old reticulated pythons (Python reticulatus), hatched from eggs laid by a newly caught female from Singapore Island, were fed on muscles of Sarcocystis singaporensis-infected Rattus rattus caught in Singapore. Snakes were sacrificed 5, 6 and 8 days later, the infected tissues were studied by transmission electron microscopy. The prese...