Calicivirus-induced vesicular disease in cetaceans and probable interspecies transmission.

A calicivirus isolated from cetaceans is a new serotype designated cetacean calicivirus Tursiops-1 (CCV-Tur-1). It appears to have spread from an initially infected Atlantic bottlenose dolphin to a California sea lion, and was then carried by the sea lion to a second facility several miles away, where a second dolphin became infected and developed vesicular skin lesions that eroded, leaving shallow ulcers. Cetaceans and pinnipeds belong to separate orders, so this finding of interspecies transmission demonstrates the potentially broad host spectrum for yet another calicivirus.