Viral and bacterial serology of six free-ranging bearded seals Erignathus barbatus

Serum or heparinized plasma samples were obtained from 3 male (2 adult and 1 weaned calf) and 3 adult female free-ranging bearded seals Erignathus barbatus in May of 1994, 1995, or 1996. Blood samples were obtained from animals taken in subsistence hunts near St. Lawrence Island, Alaska and screened for antibodies to a suite of bacteria and viruses potentially pathogenic for pinnipeds and/or humans. No samples had detectable antibodies to Brucella spp., Phocine distemper virus, influenza A virus or caliciviruses (San Miguel sea lion virus strains 1, 2, and 4 to 13, vesicular exanthema of swine serotypes A48, B51, C52, D53, E54, F55, G55, H54, 155, J56, K54, 1934B, and Tillamook and Walrus calicivirus). One seal had a low titer of 100 to Leptospira interrogans serovar grippotyphosa.