What is cetacean morbillivirus what symptoms does it cause?
What is cetacean morbillivirus what symptoms does it cause?
The most common symptoms are skin lesions, pneumonia, brain infections, and other secondary infections due to a compromised immune system.
Where did morbillivirus come from?
Cetacean morbillivirus (CeMV) is a recently described member of the genus Morbillivirus, subfamily Paramyxovirinae, family Paramyxoviridae, Order Mononegavirales, that includes three well characterized strains: the porpoise morbillivirus (PMV), first isolated from harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) from Northern …
Are cetaceans carnivores?
All cetaceans are carnivores and do not consume plants or algae as food. The large baleen whales eat schooling organisms that range in length from minute drifting mollusks, copepods (1 cm or less), krill (1–5 cm), and small fish and squid up to about 40 cm.
What does morbillivirus do to dolphins?
The virus can enter a dolphin through its eyes, mouth, urogenital tract, or skin wounds, in addition to the respiratory tract. The lungs and brain of infected dolphins are the major organs of the body that are affected. Infected dolphins appear thin and display numerous skin lesions.
What diseases do bottlenose dolphins get?
Dolphins may suffer from viral, bacterial, and fungal infections. In addition, they may develop stomach ulcers, skin diseases, tumors, heart disease, urogenital disorders, and respiratory disorders. Parasites that typically affect dolphins include tapeworms, flukes, and roundworms.
What does Morbillivirus do to Dolphins?
Are dolphins and porpoises whales?
While dolphins and porpoises belong to separate families, with differences in looks and genetics from whales, all dolphins and porpoises can be considered whales taxonomically, but not all whales are dolphins or porpoises.
Are dolphins Piscivores?
Despite what the photos above depict, pink river dolphins are certainly carnivores, or more specifically, piscivores. Eating largely fish and other aquatic animals, the energy used to maneuver their large bodies requires a lot of food.
How dolphins are exposed to viruses morbillivirus and papillomavirus and how they transmit them?
Bottlenose dolphins can contract the morbillivirus disease through the inhalation of aerosolized particles containing the virus. They also can be infected via direct contact with other infected dolphins.
What are dolphin’s predators?
Natural predators include certain large shark species such as tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier), dusky sharks (Carcharhinus obscurus), bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas), and great white sharks (Carcharhinus carcharias). In Sarasota Bay, Florida, about 31% of dolphins have shark bite scars.
What is cetacean morbillivirus?
Cetacean morbilliviruses (CeMV) are RNA viruses that were first recognized in 1988 following a series of mass cetacean and pinniped mortalities in Northwestern Europe. There are at least six distinct viral strains each of which is associated with a particular cetacean species.
What is the pathophysiology of morbillivirus?
Morbilliviruses are lymphotropic, epitheliotropic, and neurotropic and they replicate in the lymphoid tissue before dissemination and infection of other cell types and organ systems. All are highly contagious and generally cause pneumonia and encephalitis with marked immunosuppression.
What is morbillivirus PMV and DMV?
They include porpoise morbillivirus (PMV), first isolated from harbor porpoises, dolphin morbillivirus (DMV), first isolated from Mediterranean striped dolphins, and pilot whale morbillivirus (PWMV). Closely related to these three strains is beaked whale morbillivirus (BWMV).
How contagious is morbillivirus pneumonia?
All are highly contagious and generally cause pneumonia and encephalitis with marked immunosuppression. Infection rates vary among populations. Epidemiology of morbillivirus infections illustrates the episodic and contagious nature of the infections.
