 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
PUBLIC
HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE OF MARINE MAMMAL DISEASES,
BY C.D.BUCK & J.P.SCHRODER
TAKEN FROM THE CRC HANDBOOK
OF MARINE MAMMAL MEDICINE;
HEALTH, DISEASE, AND REHABILITATION.
The above publication lists numerous infections known
to be transmittable to humans from cetaceans. Direct
quotes are indented with “….”
"to minimise the risk of acquiring serious infections
and to facilitate the proper management of those which
do occur, it is important that persons dealing with
the animals, and their physicians, be aware of the
microbiological hazards associated with handling marine
mammals. Persons handling marine mammals are at risk
from infection by the numerous microorganisms normally
present in the aquarium or marine environment, by
the microorganisms that constitute the normal flora
of the animal, as well as by the pathogenic microorganisms
that cause disease in various marine mammals."
"Infectious zoonotic agents can also gain access
to humans by indirect methods of transmission. Respiratory
aerosols, water contaminated with urine and feces,
and hardware such as feed containers can facilitate
the entry of the micro-organism into a human host."
BACTERIAL INFECTIONS
"Streptococci, staphylococci, pseudomonas, proteus,
aeromonas, erysipelothrix, vibrio, clostridium and
mycobacteria are all known to infect skin wounds of
marine mammals." It also states some marine organisms
require special diagnostic techniques. It also lists
15 Vibrio spp. isolated in Hawaiian captive dolphins.
“in another instance, a bite from a dolphin
resulted in a long term infection with the agent (mycobacterium
marinum)”
“A more insidious pathogen is Pseudomonas pseudomallei…It
is know to cause respiratory disease in man and marine
mammals. The organism also causes serious wound infections
which can result in fatal septicaemia…antibody
levels were highest in those animal handlers who had
more intimate contact with dolphins and handled the
front end of the animal.”
VIRAL INFECTIONS.
“Marine mammals are also subject to viral and
presumed viral diseases…many of these have the
potential of infecting man…Although many of
these viral agents have only recently been recognised,
the diseases they cause are not new.”
“a pox like virus has been isolated in a dolphin
kidney cell line…”
“members of the herpes family have been isolated”
“with some diseases, such as rabies, one might
be tempted to dismiss the risk of contracting the
disease from marine mammals as non existent; however,
rabies has been documented in a wild seal. All marine
mammals are capable of contracting rabies, and workers
who deal with wild marine mammals must consider the
risk when planning their vaccinations or seeking treatment
for bite wounds.”
“a rotavirus-like agent has been isolated from
sea lions. In humans, members of this group are responsible
for viral gastro-enteritis, which may cause serious
diarrhoea in young children.
FUNGAL DISEASES
“Many microorganisms have been isolated from
dolphins that would not ordinarily be expected to
be found in the marine environment. Blastomycosis
and other mycotic diseases of marine mammals pose
a health risk for their handlers. Several cetaceans
are known to have died from disseminated yeast infections,
and the transmission of blastomycosis from dolphin
to a veterinarian has been documented.”
“several Candida species are commonly found
in aquarium waters. Candida albicans…can cause
localised inflammations in humans…”
“several cetacean deaths have been reported
due to asperillosis. Infections of cetaceans as well
as other species have been reported.”
(Ap2)
CRC Handbook of Marine Mammal
Medicine: Health, Disease, and Rehabilitation (1990)
According to Dr. Sweeney, the situation in captivity
creates an alteration in
the normal social structure found in the wild, where
males intermittently join
and withdraw from the female centered groups, to captivity
where adult males
permanently interact within the social group. The
frequent result, establishment
of male dominance (especially related to juveniles),
is: "often the source of
many social and behavioural problems". Hierarchies
where dominance plays a part,
are known to exist in wild dolphin groups. However,
as Dr. Sweeney explains,
"Behaviours which are perhaps normal for aquatic
mammals in the wild can become
excessive or exaggerated under conditions of captivity.
In situations where the
social and behavioural environment is less than ideal,
animals may respond by
exhibiting excessive manifestions of behaviour. "
One such category of
exaggerated behaviour is aggression, appearing "most
commonly in the form of
intimidation, with infliction of rake-bite lacerations".
Dr. Sweeney notes that,
"At times the rake lacerations can be quite severe
and not only represent
cutaneous pathology, but also signal the presence
of probable psychological
intimidation in the secondary animal". Such aggression
has also been aimed at swimmers and staff at captive
facilities.
It
is already known that the exaggerated aggression found
in some captive
dolphins can have dire consequences for the dolphins
being intimidated. "It
is this intimidation which is the likely cause of the
onset of many medical
problems including gastric ulcerations, loss of immunity,
and consequently, an
increased incidence of incidental and potentially life-threatening
infections"
(Sweeney, 1990).
App3
Disease transmission wild dolphin to captive dolphin
& captive to wild.
Hundreds of striped dolphins died along the Spanish
Mediterranean coasts from a morbillivirus, a highly
infectious virus. Any cetaceans held in sea-pens, having
access to open water or water drawn from the sea, must
be a major cause of concern for disease transmission.
Waste water from closed dolphinariums located on the
coast also pose a potential threat of contamination
to wild populations. The virus causes flu/pneumonia
symptoms at death. More details can be obtained from
the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Science,
University of Barcelona...title; PATHOLOGIC AND IMMUNOCYTOCHEMICAL
STUDIES OF MORBILLIVIRUS INFECTION IN STRIPED DOLPHINS,
BY M. DOMINGO, J. VISA.
App4
For those who are also concerned over the captivity
industries latest way of exploiting both dolphins and
humans with Dolphin Assisted Therapy…I would suggest
you obtain a paper by Dr Lori Marino & Scott O.Lilienfeld,
Department of Psychology, Emory University, USA. Entitled,
Dolphin-Assisted Therapy: Flawed data, flawed conclusions.
Some quotes from this very enlightening paper;
1. Furthermore, despite their claim that attention deficits
underline both their subjects disabilities and effectiveness
of DAT, Nathenson et al. (1997) never assessed attention
in their subjects either before of after DAT.
2. Nathenson et al. (1997) and Nathenson (1998) violated
several important criteria for validity.
3. The source of most of the major flaws in Nathenson
et al. (1997) is the absence of experimental control,
making it impossible to determine whether their results
were due to the specific effects of DAT or to a host
of potentially confounding factors.
4. When comparing subjects responses with dolphins versus
favourite toys the two conditions took place at entirely
different facilities, viz, The Dolphin Research Centre
versus a local motel, resulting in a complete confounding
of treatment condition with setting.
5. Remarkably, behaviours that might have worsened were
never systematically assessed or analysed.
6. Of 137 questionnaires sent out to parents only 52%
were returned. This relatively low rate of return raises
the possibility that parents who responded were unrepresentative
of the entire sample of parents whose children were
given DAT.
7. In summary, a plethora of serious threats to validity
and flawed data analytic procedures render the findings
of Nathenson and colleagues uninterpetable and their
conclusions unwarranted and premature.
8. Both practitioners of DAT and parents considering
DAT for their children should be made aware that this
treatment has yet to be subjected to an adequate empirical
test, and Nathenson and colleagues attention deficit
hypothesis remains an explanation in search of a phenomenon.
Dr L. Marino, Neurosciences and Behavioural Biology
Program, Department of Psychology, Emory University,
Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.
|
|
"The
greatness of a nation and its moral progress can
be determined by the way it treats its animals,"
- Mohandas Gandhi
|
©Dolphin
Project
|
 |
|
 |
| |
|
