Avian poxvirus infection in a white-tailed sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) in Japan

An adult female white-tailed sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), over 12 years old, was found moribund and sent to the Wildlife Rescue Center in Kushiro, Japan. Grossly, the bird had multifocal yellow to black nodules in the beak, tongue, mucosa of the oral cavity, eyelids, and legs. Histologically, the cutaneous nodules revealed severe epidermal hyperplasia. The thickened epithelium, from prickle cell layer to horny layer, consisted of swollen keratinocytes containing frequent eosinophilic intra-cytoplasmic inclusions, Bollinger bodies. Ultrastructurally, the epidermal cells had cytoplasmic viral particles with characteristics of poxvirus. Furthermore, the 4b core gene sequence of an avian poxvirus was detected in a DNA sample prepared from the nodular lesions by polymerase chain reaction. The nucleotide sequence of the polymerase chain reaction product showed 78 to 95% similarities to the sequences of other avian poxviruses. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the sequence is clustered in clade A but distant from all the subclades previously reported. The results imply that it is a novel avian poxvirus. To our knowledge this is the first report of avian poxvirus infection in white-tailed sea eagles.