Osteoarthritis in two marine mammals and 22 land mammals: learning from skeletal remains

Abstract

The occurrence of osteoarthritis (OA) in marine mammals is still questionable. Here we investigated the prevalence of OA in marine (dolphin and dugong) and terrestrial mammals (Asian elephant, Asiatic buffalo, camel, cat, cattle, deer, dog, domestic goat, horse, human, hyena, impala, lion, Malayan tapir, Assam macaque, mule, pig, rabbit, red kangaroo, sheep, tiger and waterbuck). Skeletal remains obtained from five institutes were used as subjects; a total of 45 different parts (locations) of bones were observed for OA lesions. The prevalence of OA was reported as number of OA lesions/total number of bones. Our results revealed that the presence of OA in marine species (dolphin and dugong) was 2.44% and 3.33%, respectively. In dolphins, the highest OA occurrence was on the left and right humeral trochlea, with 13.68% and 12.63%, respectively, while the highest number of OA lesions in dugongs was on the lumbar vertebrae (8.79%). No significant difference (P > 0.05) in the prevalence of OA between sexes in dolphins and dugongs was observed, but we found a significant difference (P < 0.05) in 24 bone locations of human bones, which had the highest OA prevalence (48.93%), followed by dogs (3.94%). In conclusion, OA can occur in marine mammals, similar to terrestrial mammals, even though their natural habitat is the ocean.

Effects of reduced mobility on trabecular bone density in captive big cats

“…All specimens are adult. Although there is some evidence that terrestrial mammals are susceptible to osteoarthritis [ 64 ], care was taken to select specimens that did not visually show any form of bone disease. Many specimens were of unknown sex ( table 1 ).…”

Risk Factors for Canine Osteoarthritis and Its Predisposing Arthropathies: A Systematic Review

“…In humans, reported risk factors for development of osteoarthritis are manifold with both systemic and local causes, linked to factors including: genetics, age, sex, obesity, previous joint trauma, and underlying diseases such as cruciate ligament rupture and osteochondritis dissecans (1). Although osteoarthritis has been reported in a wide range of non-human species, the prevalence of the condition in many of these species remains largely unexplored and as such underreported (4).…”

Whale Bone Puzzles: Reconstructing and Identifying Historical Whale Skeletons Using Archive Records, Osteology, and Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS)

“…Historical collections provide a valuable resource in this endeavour (Barilaro 2018;McLean et al 2016;Pyenson 2018;Pyke and Ehrlich 2010;Johnson et al 2011). Not only do they serve an important purpose in public displays and educational resources (Cook et al 2016;Ballard et al 2017), they also provide reference collections for morphological analyses of bones (LeFebvre and Sharpe 2018; Lyman 2010) and study samples for biomolecular techniques (Eisenmann et al 2016;Harmon, Littlewood, and Wood 2019;Nganvongpanit et al 2017;Schmitt et al 2018). Since a reference osteological database for whales is lacking in completeness, with guidebooks insufficiently authenticated and not covering the extent of diversity within or hybridizations between species (Bérubé and Palsbøll 2018), authenticating museum specimens can help provide accurate reference collections for researchers, especially given the potential today for 3D scanning and printing (Nobles, Çakirlar, and Svetachov 2019).…”