Fibropapillomatosis is a debilitating herpesvirus disease affecting sea turtles globally. Understanding its welfare implications and rehabilitation approaches supports conservation and animal care efforts.
Fibropapillomatosis causes prolonged and progressive welfare suffering in affected sea turtles. Tumours obstructing vision prevent normal predator avoidance; mouth tumours impair feeding; internal organ tumours cause systemic disease. The connection between FP prevalence and water quality means addressing the disease requires both individual treatment and environmental remediation. Sea turtle rehabilitation centres that treat FP provide welfare relief for individual animals, but durable population-level welfare improvement requires addressing the coastal pollution that drives disease prevalence.