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Hundreds of Seals
Killed in Epidemic
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The virus that killed thousands of harbor seals in
northern Europe several years ago is back, with
possibly "devastating consequences," say Dutch
and Danish researchers in the 12 July 2002
issue of the journal Science.
In 1988,
approximately 18,000 seals died from the
phocine distemper virus, their carcasses littering
the beaches of the North Sea and neighboring
waters. The population recovered, but several
new carcasses have now tested positive for the
virus, Trine Jensen at the Seal Rehabilitation and
Research Center in Pieterburen, Netherlands,
and colleagues report.
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© Science |
The epidemic began in
May, at the same place it did in 1988, on an
island of the east coast of Denmark. It has
probably spread to the coast of the Netherlands
and Sweden, and killed more than 700 seals
thus far, the authors say. They predict that the
effect of the epidemic will depend on the seals'
overall resistance and specific immunity to the
virus. Their tests indicate, however, that at most
20 percent of the current seal population may
have specific immunity from the last epidemic.
—Kathy Wren
15 July 2002
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