American Cetacean Society
Learning From Whales - Nov. 2004 Speaker and Author

2004 conference poster courtesy of Uko Gorter © 2004

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The following is an excerpt from the November 2004 conference program

Health Investigations Through Strandings

FRANCES M.D. GULLAND
The CRC Handbook of Marine Mammal Medicine

Frances M.D. GullandVet MB, PhD., MRCVS is the Director of Veterinary Science at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California. She has been actively involved in the veterinary care and rehabilitation of stranded marine mammals and research into marine mammal diseases since 1994 and is coeditor of the CRC Handbook of Marine Mammal Medicine, chair of the Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events in the USA and scientific advisor to the Oiled Wildlife Care Network and the Marine Mammal Commission. Frances received her veterinary degree from the University of Cambridge in 1984, and her PhD in Zoology also from Cambridge in 1991 for her work on the role of parasites in the population dynamics of Soay sheep on St. Kilda. She worked as House Surgeon at the Royal School of Veterinary Medicine, Edinburgh in 1984-1985, then as House Surgeon at the Zoological Society of London (Regents Park Zoo) from 1985 to 1988. Between 1991 and 1994 as Research Fellow in Wildlife Diseases at the Zoological Society of London she worked on a number of field projects including Echinococcus prevalence in Uruguay, rabies vaccination in the Serengeti, and lemur disease inMadagascar. Her professional affiliations include the Society for Marine Mammalogy, International Association for Aquatic Animal Health, Wildlife Disease Association and the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians. The CRC Handbook of Marine Mammal Medicine, Second Edition, is the only handbook specifically devoted to marine mammal medicine and health. With 66 contributors working together to craft 45 scientifically based chapters, the text has been completely revised and updated to present all the latest developments in this field. Building upon the solid foundation of the previous edition, the contents of this book expand the topics presented in the first edition in light of the rapid developments in the knowledge of marine mammal medicine over the last 10 years. Filled with detailed illustrations and photographs, the Handbook guides you through the natural history of cetaceans, pinnipeds, manatees, sea otters, and polar bears. Covering more than 40 topics, this one-of-a-kind reference is packed with data. The comprehensive compilation of information includes medicine, surgery, pathology, physiology, husbandry, feeding and housing, with special attention to strandings and rehabilitation. The CRC Handbook is a must for anyone interested in marine mammals.

ABSTRACT

Health Investigations Through Strandings - Little is known about the ecological significance of disease in marine mammal populations, as work to date has focused mostly on individual animal health. Theoretical studies suggest that infectious diseases can regulate host abundance by exerting density-dependent effects on reproduction or survival. Research on terrestrial wildlife has shown that interactions between disease and host nutrition, behavior and genetics, as well as environmental changes, can influence host population dynamics. Such investigations depend upon monitoring both disease and host populations, which has rarely occurred in marine mammal research. To date, efforts have focused on causes of morbidity and mortality in stranded and captive animals, and on the health of harvested animals. This research has shown that there are a number of diseases and toxins in free-living marine mammals that cause mortality or decrease growth and reproduction, yet their role in host population dynamics remain unclear. Interest in health and diseases in marine mammals is increasing. Stranded animals are a useful source of information on diseases in marine mammals. A number of infectious agents in marine mammals were first identified in stranded animals, after which their presence in the free-ranging population was confirmed. These include phocine distemper virus that caused the deaths of over 20,000 harbor seals in Europe in 2002 Stranded animals can also be sampled to quantify contaminant levels in tissues, and they can alert us to diseases that are present in more inaccessible wild animals. For example, 17% of sexually mature California sea lions that stranded and died along the northern California coast showed neoplasia when examined post-mortem. In comparison, only one case of neoplasia has been observed in sea lions at rookeries on San Miguel Island, where there are more than 100,000 animals. Neoplasia pathogenesis is thus more readily studied with stranded sea lions than those at rookeries, and stranded animals serve as sentinels for their wild counterparts. Stranded animals do not constitute an ideal sentinel system, however, as they do not represent the entire population. This talk will review what we have learnt from stranded animals, and how we can continue to learn more.

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