Protozoal-related mortalities in endangered Hawaiian monk seals Neomonachus schauinslandi
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Protozoal infections have been widely documented in marine mammals and may cause morbidity and mortality at levels that result in population level effects. The presence and potential impact on the recovery of endangered Hawaiian monk seals Neomonachus schauinslandi by protozoal pathogens was first identified in the carcass of a stranded adult male with disseminated toxoplasmosis and a captive monk seal with hepatitis. We report 7 additional cases and 2 suspect cases of protozoal-related mortality in Hawaiian monk seals between 2001 and 2015, including the first record of vertical transmission in this species. This study establishes case definitions for classification of protozoal infections in Hawaiian monk seals. Histopathology and immunohistochemistry were the primary diagnostic modalities used to define cases, given that these analyses establish a direct link between disease and pathogen presence. Findings were supported by serology and molecular data when available. Toxoplasma gondii was the predominant apicomplexan parasite identified and was associated with 100% of mortalities (n = 8) and 50% of suspect cases (n = 2). Incidental identification of sarcocysts in the skeletal muscle without tissue inflammation occurred in 4 seals, including one co-infected with T. gondii. In 2015, 2 cases of toxoplasmosis were identified ante-mortem and shared similar clinical findings, including hematological abnormalities and histopathology. Protozoal-related mortalities, specifically due to toxoplasmosis, are emerging as a threat to the recovery of this endangered pinniped and other native Hawaiian taxa. By establishing case definitions, this study provides a foundation for measuring the impact of these diseases on Hawaiian monk seals.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".