DOLPHIN MORBILLIVIRAL INFECTION FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA DID NOT SPREAD INTO THE ADRIATIC SEA

In July of 1990, a mass mortality of striped dolphins due to morbilliv irus infection had begun in the western Mediterranean. By 1992, the in fection had spread to the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. Ot her dolphin species in the Mediterranean were not found to have died d ue to this infection, although it is possible for many species of mari ne mammals to be infected. In 1994, it was published that morbilliviru s infection had caused Atlantic bottlenose dolphin mortality in the US A. Although striped dolphins are not residents of the Adriatic Sea, it was hypothesised that the infection could have spread from them to Ad riatic bottlenose dolphins. From October 1990 through April 1997, 16 d olphin carcasses found along the Croatian Adriatic coast were examined . Tissues were examined by light microscopy for syncytia and inclusion bodies, histopathologic lesions characteristic of dolphin morbillivir us infection, and by detection of morbilliviral RNA by a reverse trans criptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). No signs of morbillivirus infection were found in the examined animals. It was concluded that t his infection had not spread to dolphins of the Adriatic Sea up until that date.