Seals - this could be the break we've been waiting for

[PRBuzz]

There is already a seal distemper spreading through the populations:

In 1988, harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) died in large numbers off the coast of northern Europe (1). A virus was first isolated in April 1988, when widespread abortions and deaths among harbor seals were reported in the Kattegat area between Denmark and Sweden. The infection spread to the North, Wadden, and Baltic seas, killing 17,000–20,000 seals in northwestern Europe in 8 months. The virus subsequently was classified as a species of the genus Morbillivirus (family Paramyxoviridae) (2,3), Phocine distemper virus (PDV). The virus is believed to have originated in harp seals in which the infection is enzootic (4). Migrations of harp seals into the North Sea may have initiated the epizootic in harbor seals. Gray seals in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean also were infected, but disease was not as severe as in harbor seals (5).

A more recent outbreak occurred in Europe in 2002 (6). An estimated 30,000 harbor and gray seals died during this epizootic (7,8). The origin of this second epizootic 14 years after the first remains unknown. PDV may have jumped species into terrestrial carnivores, particularly mink, and reinfected seals (9), but this hypothesis remains unproven. Phylogenetic analysis of the hemagglutin (H) genes of PDV, together with those of other morbilliviruses, suggests that the reemergent 2002 PDV is more closely related to a putative recent ancestral PDV than to the 1988 isolates (10). Millions of seals of various species inhabit the waters surrounding North America; populations of most species are believed to be stable or increasing, and no epizootics on the scale of those reported in Europe have been reported. PDV disease in the United States was first reported in harbor seals on the east coast during the winter of 1991–92 (11), and serologic testing of gray and harbor seals suggested that a PDV-like strain or strains were circulating enzootically in the region (12). This circulation was attributed to an increased number of harbor seals (mainly immature animals) overwintering in southern New England (13). During the spring of 2006, deaths among seals (harbor, gray, and hooded) also increased along the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts. This increase was considered an unusual mortality event. Both dead and sick seals appeared nonemaciated. Live-stranded seals were weak and had generalized body tremors and spasms. Affected seals were taken to the Marine Science Education and Research Center (University of New England, Biddeford, ME, USA); investigations indicated that the pathologic changes were consistent with morbillivirus infection. Recent advances in virus isolation and genetic sequencing methods have provided us with better insight into PDV epizootiology in Europe and in North America.

Phocine Distemper Virus in Seals, East Coast, United States, 2006 - Vol. 17 No. 2 - February 2011 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC