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DOLPHIN MASS PRO
We found all of these tissues to be positive for DMV, and we analyzed the gene sequences obtained from the 4 whales’ tissues by using an ad hoc computer program (Lasergene package version SeqMan Pro DNASTAR Inc., Madison, WI, USA). Therefore, we used a more sensitive, nested reverse transcription PCR technique that targeted a highly preserved fragment of the viral hemagglutinin (H) gene ( 3) to investigate the lung (SW1), brain (SW3), and lymphoid tissues (SW2 and SW3) of the 3 adult whales and the lung, kidney, and liver of the fetus (SW1b). Our use of 1-step PCR protocols ( 2) failed to sequence any viral fragment, probably because of postmortem changes and subsequent viral RNA degradation by ribonucleases, which progress rapidly in large whales because of their body features and size and thus affect the integrity of the DMV genome. Positive immunostaining (Mayer’s hematoxylin counterstain) for morbilliviral antigen is.
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Spleen of the youngest female sperm whale (SW3) in study of 7 sperm whales stranded along Italy’s Adriatic coastline in September 2014. We observed microscopically evidence of lymphoid cell depletion in several secondary lymphoid tissues from all 3 adult whales, and we found definitive biomolecular evidence of dolphin morbillivirus (DMV) infection in the 3 adult whales and in the fetus.įigure. This condition might have resulted in renal function impairment. Three females (sperm whale 1, pregnant, total length 8.95 m SW2, total length 8.38 m and SW3, total length 7.33 m) died on the beach, and postmortem analyses revealed that the largest animal, a pregnant female (SW1), whose male fetus (SW1b) also died, was affected by a prominent hydronephrosis caused by a large stone occupying >50% of the right kidney pelvis. In September 2014, seven sperm whales were found stranded along the central Adriatic Italian coastline 4 of these whales were refloated. Although a multifactorial etiology was hypothesized to be responsible for a mass stranding that occurred in December 2009 involving 7 male sperm whales along the southern Adriatic coast of Italy ( 1), well-defined causes of similar events are rarely identified. Solar cycles, weather conditions, coastal geographic features, and human activities have been proposed as possible causes ( 1). The mass strandings of sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus) are still largely unexplained events.