Cross-species infection?
Posted on 08/27/2013 5:35:15 PM PDT by neverdem
More than 300 bottlenose dolphins have stranded themselves along the US East Coast this summer, and now researchers think they know why: they are sick.
Preliminary tests suggest that cetacean morbillivirus, a cousin of the virus that causes measles in humans, is killing dolphins from New York to North Carolina, officials with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said today.
Since 1 July, 333 dolphins have beached themselves, more than twice the normal yearly average for that stretch of coastline, prompting NOAA to declare an ‘unusual mortality event’ on 8 August. Many of the dolphins that have washed up have borne signs of disease, including severe weight loss and skin and mouth lesions.
Initial tests for antibodies in 33 of the animals have confirmed that 32 are positive or ‘suspected positive’ for cetacean morbillivirus, says Teri Rowles, who coordinates the agency’s Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program. Further genetic tests have confirmed the presence of the virus in some of those dolphins, while necropsies have found lesions consistent with morbillivirus.
Researchers are not sure how long the outbreak will last. A similar event in 1987 lasted for 11 months, killing so many animals that two East Coast dolphin stocks were subsequently listed as ‘depleted’ by the US government. “If indeed this plays out the way that die-off occurred, then we are looking at mortality being high and morbillivirus spreading southward – likely continuing through the spring of 2014,” Rowles says.
Lance Garrison, a biologist at NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Miami, says that researchers are trying to determine where the morbillivirus epidemic started...
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.nature.com ...
Hmmm. This sounds like the perfect excuse for the EPA to ban sport fishing along the entire east coast.
I thought there was already a limit on dolphin...
Bush’s fault???
Within 24 hours, algore will morph this into globull warming.
Were at a coastal beach this past week and saw the beach police burying a dolphin ...pretty sad.
That said, we saw plenty of them frolicking off the shore throughout the week.
Cross-species infection?
I thought there was already a limit on dolphin...
All sport fishing, I meant.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my combined microbiology/immunology ping list.
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