Neimanis Aleksija, Stavenow Jasmine, Ågren Erik Olof, Wikström-Lassa Emil, Roos Anna Maria
Department of Pathology and Wildlife Diseases, National Veterinary Institute, 751 89 Uppsala, Sweden.
Department of Environmental Research and Monitoring, Swedish Museum of Natural History, 114 18 Stockholm, Sweden.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Feb 3;12(3):369. doi: 10.3390/ani12030369.
Harbour porpoises () are useful indicators of the health of their wild populations and marine ecosystems, yet their elusive nature makes studying them in their natural environment challenging. Stranded porpoises provide an excellent source of data to study the health and biology of these animals and identify causes of death, diseases and other threats. The aim of this study was to document pathology, and where possible, cause of death in porpoises from Swedish waters. Post-mortem examinations were performed on 128 stranded porpoises collected from 2006 to 2020. Overall, bycatch including definitive and probable cases was the most common cause of death (31.4%), followed by disease (21.3%), predominantly pneumonia. In adults, infectious disease was the most common cause of death. Bacteria with zoonotic potential such as and sp. were documented for the first time in porpoises from Swedish waters, as was the porpoise-adapted group B ST416/ST417. Three of four deaths from non-infectious diseases involved parturition complications. Four cases of suspected predation were documented, but further analyses are required to confirm these findings. Our results are consistent with those from other regions in Europe and serve as a reference for future monitoring for changing patterns of health and disease of porpoises and their environments.
港湾鼠海豚（）是其野生种群和海洋生态系统健康状况的有用指标，然而它们难以捉摸的特性使得在其自然环境中对其进行研究具有挑战性。搁浅的鼠海豚为研究这些动物的健康状况和生物学特性以及确定死亡原因、疾病和其他威胁提供了绝佳的数据来源。本研究的目的是记录瑞典海域鼠海豚的病理学情况，并在可能的情况下确定其死亡原因。对2006年至2020年期间收集的128头搁浅鼠海豚进行了尸检。总体而言，兼捕（包括确定病例和可能病例）是最常见的死亡原因（31.4%），其次是疾病（21.3%），主要是肺炎。在成年鼠海豚中，传染病是最常见的死亡原因。具有人畜共患病潜力的细菌，如和sp.，首次在瑞典海域的鼠海豚中被记录，适应鼠海豚的B群ST416/ST417也是如此。四例非传染性疾病导致的死亡中有三例涉及分娩并发症。记录了四例疑似被捕食的情况，但需要进一步分析来证实这些发现。我们的结果与欧洲其他地区的结果一致，可为未来监测鼠海豚及其环境的健康和疾病变化模式提供参考。
