Stephanie Venn‐Watson

Marine mammals play crucial ecological roles in the oceans, but little is known about their microbiotas. Here we study the bacterial communities in 337 samples from 5 body sites in 48 healthy dolphins and 18 healthy sea lions, as well as those of adjacent seawater and other hosts. The bacterial taxonomic compositions are distinct from those of other mammals, dietary fish and seawater, are highly diverse and vary according to body site and host species. Dolphins harbour 30 bacterial phyla, with 25 of them in the mouth, several abundant but poorly characterized Tenericutes species in gastric fluid and a surprisingly paucity of Bacteroidetes in distal gut. About 70% of near-full length bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA sequences from dolphins are unique. Host habitat, diet and phylogeny all contribute to variation in marine mammal distal gut microbiota composition. Our findings help elucidate the factors structuring marine mammal microbiotas and may enhance monitoring of marine mammal health.

Dietary odd-chain saturated fatty acids (OCFAs) are present in trace levels in dairy fat and some fish and plants. Higher circulating concentrations of OCFAs, pentadecanoic acid (C15:0) and heptadecanoic acid (C17:0), are associated with lower risks of cardiometabolic diseases, and higher dietary intake of OCFAs is associated with lower mortality. Population-wide circulating OCFA levels, however, have been declining over recent years. Here, we show C15:0 as an active dietary fatty acid that attenuates inflammation, anemia, dyslipidemia, and fibrosis in vivo, potentially by binding to key metabolic regulators and repairing mitochondrial function. This is the first demonstration of C15:0's direct role in attenuating multiple comorbidities using relevant physiological mechanisms at established circulating concentrations. Pairing our findings with evidence that (1) C15:0 is not readily made endogenously, (2) lower C15:0 dietary intake and blood concentrations are associated with higher mortality and a poorer physiological state, and (3) C15:0 has demonstrated activities and efficacy that parallel associated health benefits in humans, we propose C15:0 as a potential essential fatty acid. Further studies are needed to evaluate the potential impact of decades of reduced intake of OCFA-containing foods as contributors to C15:0 deficiencies and susceptibilities to chronic disease.

Astroviruses are small, non-enveloped, positive-stranded RNA viruses. Previously studied mammalian astroviruses have been associated with diarrhoeal disease. Knowledge of astrovirus diversity is very limited, with only six officially recognized astrovirus species from mammalian hosts and, in addition, one human and some bat astroviruses were recently described. We used consensus PCR techniques for initial identification of five astroviruses of marine mammals: three from California sea lions (Zalophus californianus), one from a Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) and one from a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Bayesian and maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analysis found that these viruses showed significant diversity at a level consistent with novel species. Astroviruses that we identified from marine mammals were found across the mamastrovirus tree and did not form a monophyletic group. Recombination analysis found that a recombination event may have occurred between a human and a California sea lion astrovirus, suggesting that both lineages may have been capable of infecting the same host at one point. The diversity found amongst marine mammal astroviruses and their similarity to terrestrial astroviruses suggests that the marine environment plays an important role in astrovirus ecology.

A northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM) cetacean unusual mortality event (UME) involving primarily bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama began in February 2010 and continued into 2014. Overlapping in time and space with this UME was the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, which was proposed as a contributing cause of adrenal disease, lung disease, and poor health in live dolphins examined during 2011 in Barataria Bay, Louisiana. To assess potential contributing factors and causes of deaths for stranded UME dolphins from June 2010 through December 2012, lung and adrenal gland tissues were histologically evaluated from 46 fresh dead non-perinatal carcasses that stranded in Louisiana (including 22 from Barataria Bay), Mississippi, and Alabama. UME dolphins were tested for evidence of biotoxicosis, morbillivirus infection, and brucellosis. Results were compared to up to 106 fresh dead stranded dolphins from outside the UME area or prior to the DWH spill. UME dolphins were more likely to have primary bacterial pneumonia (22% compared to 2% in non-UME dolphins, P = .003) and thin adrenal cortices (33% compared to 7% in non-UME dolphins, P = .003). In 70% of UME dolphins with primary bacterial pneumonia, the condition either caused or contributed significantly to death. Brucellosis and morbillivirus infections were detected in 7% and 11% of UME dolphins, respectively, and biotoxin levels were low or below the detection limit, indicating that these were not primary causes of the current UME. The rare, life-threatening, and chronic adrenal gland and lung diseases identified in stranded UME dolphins are consistent with exposure to petroleum compounds as seen in other mammals. Exposure of dolphins to elevated petroleum compounds present in coastal GoM waters during and after the DWH oil spill is proposed as a cause of adrenal and lung disease and as a contributor to increased dolphin deaths.

Pneumonia is one of the most common causes of morbidity in bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus. To better understand associations of pneumonia with demographics, microbiology, pathology, and histopathology, a retrospective study on 42 dolphins from the US Navy Marine Mammal Program dolphin population was conducted (1980 to 2010). A total of 21 (50%) of the dolphins evaluated had pneumonia confirmed by histopathology. Bacterial and fungal pneumonia was present in 42.9 and 28.6% of cases (9 and 6 cases), respectively, with Staphylococcus aureus as the most common confirmed pathogen (4 cases, 19%). Other pathogens identified as the cause of pneumonia were Cryptococcus neoformans, Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, Histoplasma capsulatum, parainfluenza virus, Proteus species, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Streptococcus zooepidemicus. Neither sex nor age was a predictor of pneumonia. While many of the infections involved disseminated disease, lungs were consistently the most severely affected organs. The present study demonstrates the high susceptibility of dolphins to respiratory infections. Areas that warrant further investigation include eosinophilic pneumonia, chronic infections, co-infections, and metabolic or iron-storage diseases. There is a continuing need to improve the early diagnosis and effective treatment of pneumonia in dolphins.