Investigation on Morbillivirus, Herpesvirus and Coronavirus Presence in Stranded Cetaceans

The knowledge of marine mammal health is limited due to the difficulty in accessing these animals, which are challenging to study through active surveillance. Consequently, insights into their health status and physiology are primarily obtained from stranded individuals. The collection of epidemiological data on cetacean infectious diseases is also hindered by the lack of standardized active sampling protocols, making carcasses of stranded animals the primary source of information on pathogen circulation. In this study, FTA® cards were evaluated as a sampling tool to optimize biomolecular investigations on compromised tissues, and subsequently used to detect key viruses affecting cetaceans. The presence of dolphin morbillivirus and herpesvirus was confirmed in animals stranded along the Italian coastline, while the first detection of a gammacoronavirus in a free-ranging dolphin stranded on the Croatian coast was reported. The sampling and diagnostic techniques proposed in this work offer valuable tools for epidemiological surveillance of common and emerging diseases in cetaceans, providing new methods to monitor marine mammal health.