Sea turtles with tumors fill Florida hospital

Bette Zirkelbach holds a green sea turtle afflicted by a kind of herpes virus that causes fibropapillomatosis at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida in the Florida Keys. -AFP

MARATHON, United States: The young patient writhes on the operating table, kicking its flippers. A team of medical attendants turns it over, revealing an underbelly cluttered with tumors, some as big as golf balls.

This endangered green sea turtle, about two years old and too young for the staff to know yet whether it is male or female, is infected with fibropapillomatosis, a potentially deadly disease caused by a type of herpes virus.