(ORDO NEWS) — Researchers at the University of Hawaii Marine Animal Health and Beaching Laboratory have identified a new and dangerous virus in whales and dolphins across the Pacific Ocean.
The pathogen can be potentially lethal to these mammals.
Previously, a circovirus called Bengaluru Weather Change Virus (BWCV) was found in only one whale that washed ashore in 2010 near Hawaii.
Now experts have identified it in ten species of whales and dolphins. Moreover, a positive test result was registered in animals near the Mariana Islands and Samoa, which is almost 6.5 thousand kilometers from the original detection site.
Moreover, around the Hawaiian Islands, BWCV was recorded in almost 50 percent of the studied marine mammals.
The analysis also revealed that the circovirus has been present in the Pacific Ocean for at least the past 22 years.
The scientists tested animals from a sample archive that includes samples taken from animals dating back to 1997.
Among these cases, researchers identified BWCV in a pygmy sperm whale that washed ashore on Oahu in 2000. This shows that at least since then, the virus has existed among Hawaiian whales and dolphins.
It is not yet known how the new virus might affect infected hosts. The first case was reported in a fatally ill whale, but the animal was also infected with other pathogens.
Circoviruses are DNA viruses that cause infections in birds, pigs, and dogs and, in severe cases, can be fatal.
Experts are sounding the alarm as their data show the virus has begun to spread across the Central and Western Pacific and could infect even more marine mammals.
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