There are extensive immunological reagents available for laboratory rodents and humans. However, for veterinary species there is a need for expansion of immunological toolkits, with this especially evident for marine mammals, such as cetaceans. In addition to their use in a research setting, immune assays could be employed to monitor the health status of cetaceans and serve as an adjunct to available diagnostic tests. Such development of specific and sensitive immune assays will enhance the proper care and stewardship of wild and managed cetacean populations. Our goal is to provide immune reagents and immune assays for the research community, clinicians, and others involved in care of bottlenose dolphins. This review will provide an update on our development of a bottlenose dolphin immunological toolkit. The future availability and continued development of these reagents is critical for improving wild and managed bottlenose dolphin population health through enhanced assessment of their responses to alterations in the marine environment, including pathogens, and improve our ability to monitor their status following vaccination.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetimm.2024.110769 | DOI Listing |
Microorganisms
January 2025
Laboratory of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Joint Department of Veterinary Medicine, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu 501-1193, Japan.
In recent decades, many fungi have emerged as major causes of disease in marine mammals. This study reports on the detection of filamentous fungi in the subcutaneous tissue and wound surface on the tail fin of a managed bottlenose dolphin () emaciated due to severe digestive problems. Immunosuppression by chronic diseases and starvation decreased resistance against opportunistic infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVet Immunol Immunopathol
January 2025
Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University, 1866 Kameino, Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa-ken 252-0880, Japan. Electronic address:
Cetaceans have adapted to aquatic life by evolving various anatomic and physiologic traits, but biological defense mechanisms specific to aquatic mammals that protect against pathogenic microorganisms in the aquatic environment have not been elucidated. In this study, we investigated the migration of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in bottlenose dolphins in response to various chemotactic factors and compared the migration response with that of terrestrial animals such as cows and humans to characterize biological defense mechanisms unique to cetaceans. Bottlenose dolphin neutrophils showed strong chemotactic activity toward zymosan-activated serum and recombinant human interleukin-8 but no chemotaxis toward N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine or leukotriene B at any concentration examined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Acoust Soc Am
January 2025
Key Laboratory of Underwater Acoustic Communication and Marine Information Technology of the Ministry of Education, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
Odontocetes are capable of dynamically changing their echolocation clicks to efficiently detect targets, and learning their clicking strategy can facilitate the design of man-made detecting signals. In this study, we developed deep convolutional generative adversarial networks guided by an acoustic feature vector (AF-DCGANs) to synthesize narrowband clicks of the finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides sunameri) and broadband clicks of the bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). The average short-time objective intelligibility (STOI), spectral correlation coefficient (Spe-CORR), waveform correlation coefficient (Wave-CORR), and dynamic time warping distance (DTW-Distance) of the synthetic clicks were 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimals (Basel)
January 2025
Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE-PSL, Université des Antilles, 75005 Paris, France.
The common bottlenose dolphin () exhibits significant intraspecific diversity globally, with distinct ecotypes identified in various regions. In the Guadeloupe archipelago, the citizen science NGO OMMAG has been monitoring these dolphins for over a decade, documenting two distinct morphotypes. This study investigates whether these morphotypes represent coastal and oceanic ecotypes, which have not been previously identified in the region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcol Evol
January 2025
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Adelaide South Australia Australia.
Understanding population demography of threatened species and how they vary in relation to natural and anthropogenic stressors is essential for effective conservation. We used a long-term photographic capture-recapture dataset (1993-2020) of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins () in the highly urbanised Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary (ADS), South Australia, to estimate key demographic parameters and their variability over time. These parameters were analysed in relation to environmental variables used as indicators of local and large-scale climatic events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!