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<DIV class="wpn-post-title entry-title article-heading"><A
href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/2013/08/virus-pinpointed-in-us-dolphin-die-off.html"><FONT
color=#000000 size=4>Virus pinpointed in US dolphin die-off</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV class=wpn-byline><TIME datetime="2013-08-27T21:23:47+01:00" pubdate><FONT
size=3>by <SPAN class="author vcard"><A class="url fn n" title="Lauren Morello"
href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/author/Lauren-Morello"><FONT
color=#000000>Lauren Morello</FONT></A></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=wpn-byline><SPAN class="author vcard"><SPAN class=published><ABBR
class=value title=2013-08-27><FONT size=3>NATURE, 27 Aug
2013</FONT></ABBR></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=wpn-byline><SPAN class="author vcard"><A
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<P><FONT size=3>More than 300 bottlenose dolphins have stranded themselves along
the US East Coast this summer, and now researchers think they know why: the
dolphins are sick.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3>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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3>Since 1 July, 333 dolphins have beached themselves, more
than twice the normal yearly average for that stretch of coastline, prompting
the 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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3>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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3>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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3>Lance Garrison, a biologist at the NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries
Science Center in Miami, Florida, says that researchers are trying to determine
where the morbillivirus epidemic started. “One of the real challenges is
determining which populations of bottlenose dolphins are affected,” he
says.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3>Scientists are trying to determine whether environmental
effects, such as pollution, could be weakening the dolphins’ immune systems.
They also want to know how the age and sex of a dolphin affects its ability to
survive morbillivirus infection, and whether other dolphin species are
vulnerable to the current outbreak.</FONT></P></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>