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Osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina) from the German North Sea: a study of the lesions seen in dry bone

BACKGROUND: Pathological changes and resulting functional impairment of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) can substantially affect physical condition, morbidity, and mortality of wildlife species. Analysis of TMJ disorders is therefore of interest for the characterization of the health status of pop...

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Autores principales: Ludolphy, Catharina, Kahle, Patricia, Kierdorf, Horst, Kierdorf, Uwe
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5930511/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29716601
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12917-018-1473-5
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author Ludolphy, Catharina
Kahle, Patricia
Kierdorf, Horst
Kierdorf, Uwe
author_facet Ludolphy, Catharina
Kahle, Patricia
Kierdorf, Horst
Kierdorf, Uwe
author_sort Ludolphy, Catharina
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Pathological changes and resulting functional impairment of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) can substantially affect physical condition, morbidity, and mortality of wildlife species. Analysis of TMJ disorders is therefore of interest for the characterization of the health status of populations of wild mammals. This paper, for the first time, analyses the prevalence of TMJ osteoarthritis (TMJ-OA) and the spectrum of osteoarthritic bone lesions of the TMJ in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina), applying a standardized scoring system. Dry skulls of 1872 individuals from the German North Sea, collected between 1961 and 1994, were examined for lesions consistent with a diagnosis of TMJ-OA. Of the skulls, 913 (48.8%) were from male, 959 (51.2%) from female seals, with age at death ranging from 2 weeks to 25 years. Possible associations of TMJ-OA with dental or periodontal disorders were also analysed. RESULTS: Lesions consistent with TMJ-OA were found in 963 (53.9%) of the 1787 juvenile/subadult (5 weeks to 5 years of age) and adult (> 5 years) specimens, the condition mostly (95.0% of affected individuals) occurring in a bilateral fashion. Males were affected more frequently than females (p < 0.001), while lesion severity tended to be higher in females (p < 0.05). Severity of TMJ-OA lesions was positively correlated with age (p < 0.001). Lesion severity was also weakly positively correlated with the number of fractured teeth (p < 0.05) and of intravitally lost teeth (p < 0.01), when controlling for age at death as a confounder. CONCLUSIONS: TMJ-OA is a common disorder in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal. The more pronounced severity of the lesions in females compared to males is basically attributed to the higher average age of the female subsample. The causes underlying the high prevalence of TMJ-OA in the studied assemblage remain unknown. Most of the specimens (75.3%) analysed in the present study were found dead during the first phocine distemper virus epizootic in 1988. Therefore, it is assumed that, contrary to other museum collections, only little overrepresentation of pathological skeletal conditions is present in this death sample compared with the population from which it originated. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-018-1473-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-59305112018-05-09 Osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina) from the German North Sea: a study of the lesions seen in dry bone Ludolphy, Catharina Kahle, Patricia Kierdorf, Horst Kierdorf, Uwe BMC Vet Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Pathological changes and resulting functional impairment of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) can substantially affect physical condition, morbidity, and mortality of wildlife species. Analysis of TMJ disorders is therefore of interest for the characterization of the health status of populations of wild mammals. This paper, for the first time, analyses the prevalence of TMJ osteoarthritis (TMJ-OA) and the spectrum of osteoarthritic bone lesions of the TMJ in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina), applying a standardized scoring system. Dry skulls of 1872 individuals from the German North Sea, collected between 1961 and 1994, were examined for lesions consistent with a diagnosis of TMJ-OA. Of the skulls, 913 (48.8%) were from male, 959 (51.2%) from female seals, with age at death ranging from 2 weeks to 25 years. Possible associations of TMJ-OA with dental or periodontal disorders were also analysed. RESULTS: Lesions consistent with TMJ-OA were found in 963 (53.9%) of the 1787 juvenile/subadult (5 weeks to 5 years of age) and adult (> 5 years) specimens, the condition mostly (95.0% of affected individuals) occurring in a bilateral fashion. Males were affected more frequently than females (p < 0.001), while lesion severity tended to be higher in females (p < 0.05). Severity of TMJ-OA lesions was positively correlated with age (p < 0.001). Lesion severity was also weakly positively correlated with the number of fractured teeth (p < 0.05) and of intravitally lost teeth (p < 0.01), when controlling for age at death as a confounder. CONCLUSIONS: TMJ-OA is a common disorder in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal. The more pronounced severity of the lesions in females compared to males is basically attributed to the higher average age of the female subsample. The causes underlying the high prevalence of TMJ-OA in the studied assemblage remain unknown. Most of the specimens (75.3%) analysed in the present study were found dead during the first phocine distemper virus epizootic in 1988. Therefore, it is assumed that, contrary to other museum collections, only little overrepresentation of pathological skeletal conditions is present in this death sample compared with the population from which it originated. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-018-1473-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2018-05-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5930511/ /pubmed/29716601 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12917-018-1473-5 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ludolphy, Catharina
Kahle, Patricia
Kierdorf, Horst
Kierdorf, Uwe
Osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina) from the German North Sea: a study of the lesions seen in dry bone
title Osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina) from the German North Sea: a study of the lesions seen in dry bone
title_full Osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina) from the German North Sea: a study of the lesions seen in dry bone
title_fullStr Osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina) from the German North Sea: a study of the lesions seen in dry bone
title_full_unstemmed Osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina) from the German North Sea: a study of the lesions seen in dry bone
title_short Osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint in the Eastern Atlantic harbour seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina) from the German North Sea: a study of the lesions seen in dry bone
title_sort osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint in the eastern atlantic harbour seal (phoca vitulina vitulina) from the german north sea: a study of the lesions seen in dry bone
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5930511/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29716601
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12917-018-1473-5
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