UNDIAGNOSED DOLPHIN DIE-OFF - USA: (MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA)
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Date: Tue 29 Nov 2011
Source: Mississippi Press [edited]
<http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2011/11/sick_dolphin_found_in_alabama.html>
Sick dolphin found in Alabama may offer clues to massive die-off
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A sick dolphin found Friday [25 Nov 2011] in a marsh near Fort Morgan [Alabama] -- named Chance by its rescuers -- may be headed to recovery, according to Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport [Mississippi].
The live 2-year-old dolphin was among 5 found stranded within a week, Solangi said Monday [28 Nov 2011]. 4 of the dolphins -- 2 in Alabama and 2 in Mississippi -- were dead.
Solangi said some of the samples taken from the live dolphin were sent to local hospitals for testing. Other samples are going to laboratories across the nation today [29 Nov 2011], he said.
The dolphin is about 6 feet [1.8 meters] long and weighs about 220 pounds [100 kilograms], he said. Solangi estimated the dolphin had lost about 20 percent of its body weight and said it was suffering from parasites, scrapes and bruises.
He and others hope that the dolphin can be a piece of the puzzle about why dolphins have been dying in unusual numbers in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Solangi said, "We'll find more answers than we've been able to get in looking at dead animals."
Deaths of about 600 dolphins since February 2010 have been described by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] officials as an "unusual mortality event." The event is occurring from the Texas/Louisiana border to the Florida Panhandle.
The deaths have become a focus of attention because of public concern that they may be linked to the 2010 Gulf oil spill and its aftermath.
Said Erin Fougeres, administrator of NOAA's Southeast Region Stranding
Program: "No individual animal is going to be the smoking gun that tells us the cause of all the mortalities that occurred, but it is always interesting to have an animal that is in such good condition."
No connection between the dolphin deaths and the oil spill has been established, she said. "We continue to look at all possible causes for the mortality event and the oil spill itself is a potential cause that we are looking at," Fougeres said. "It may have impacted the animals by compromising their immune system to make them more susceptible, but we can't say that is what occurred at this point."
Fougeres said the investigation into the dolphin deaths has been widespread. "We may end up with multiple factors as the cause," she said.
Solangi said that 2 dolphins found dead Sunday at Gulfport and Pass Christian [Mississippi] were each about 5 feet long [1.5 meters].
"This is probably the crop that was born in February and March this year [2011]," he said.
An October [2011] report released by NOAA stated that 5 of 21 dolphin carcasses tested positive and were believed to have died from a bacterium called _Brucella_, which causes flu-like symptoms in marine mammals. All the carcasses that tested positive for _Brucella_ were found along the Louisiana coast. They included 2 adults and 3 fetuses.
The bacterium is associated with abortions in marine and other mammals. The number of carcasses testing positive or suspected positive for _Brucella_ has expanded to 10 out of 29, Fougeres said.
In a typical year, about 30 dead dolphins are found along Mississippi and Alabama beaches, Solangi said. There have been more than 100 over the course of the past year, he said. "Of course, people are more on the lookout for them (since the spill), but there is obviously something going on," he said. This past February and March [2011], for example, saw a historic number of dead dolphin fetuses and babies, he said.
Solangi said that the dolphin found Friday [25 Nov 2011] will stay at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies for recovery and rehabilitation, which could last several months.
[Byline: Harlan Kirgan]
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Communicated by:
ProMED-mail from HealthMap alerts
<promed@promedmail.org>
[Hopefully studies carried out on this sick animal will shed some light on the causes behind these unusual dolphin mortalities. If the problem is due to a common proximal cause (such as, a single etiologic agent that directly causes disease), the chances of establishing the origin are larger than if the problem is multifactorial. It is unlikely that _Brucella_ might be a sufficient cause of these die-offs, as this pathogen, although widespread in marine mammals, only seldom has been found associated with diseases such as placentitis/abortions, neonatal mortality, meningoencephalitis, abscesses, or other syndromes. To establish a more distant cause-effect relationship, such as the oil spill, might prove very challenging. - Mod.PMB]
[The Gulf Coast of the US and the states of Mississippi and Alabama can be seen on the HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map at <http://healthmap.org/r/1vee>. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]
[see also:
2010
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Dolphin die-off - USA: (southern coast) 20100609.1929
2009
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Cetacean morbillivirus, dolphins - Black Sea: susp, RFI 20090831.3066 Dolphin mortality - India 20090401.1250
2008
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Dolphin die-off - USA: (TX) 20080305.0913] .................................................sb/pmb/mj/jw/ll
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