Tags: Disease.
Sealpox is a cutaneous condition caused by parapoxvirus usually affecting seal handlers who have been bitten by infected harbor or grey seals. First identified in 1969 it wasn’t unequivocally proven to be transmissible to humans until 2005 though such transmission had been reported at least as early as 1987. It “causes lesions very similar to orf.” As many as 2% of seals in marine mammal rehabilitation facilities in North America may have it.