Brucella ceti
has been recovered from a number species of cetaceans worldwide over the last 25 yr. Here we report, for the first time, the recovery of
B. ceti
from a Risso’s dolphin
Grampus griseus
...and a killer whale
Orcinus orca
. Recovery from an abdominal mass in the dolphin provides further evidence of the systemic pathogenic potential for
B. ceti
infection in cetaceans. The isolation of
B. ceti
ST23 (porpoise cluster) from a killer whale from a group known to eat other marine mammals raises the possibility of infection via ingestion. This report takes the number of cetacean species in UK coastal waters from which
B. ceti
has been isolated to 11 and highlights the value of routine, comprehensive and specific screening for significant pathogens such as
Brucella
sp. by strandings networks.
Campylobacter pinnipediorum
was described recently for isolates recovered from pinnipeds. The novel species was further split into 2 subspecies based on host and geography, with
C. pinnipediorum
...subsp.
pinnipediorum
recovered from otariid seals in California (USA) and
C. pinnipediorum
subsp.
caledonicus
recovered from phocid seals in Scotland. We report details of the infections of 7 pinnipeds from which
C. pinnipediorum
was isolated:
C. pinnipediorum
subsp.
caledonicus
was isolated from 2 harbour seals
Phoca vitulina
and a single grey seal
Halichoerus grypus
, and
C. pinnipediorum
subsp.
pinnipediorum
was isolated from California sea lions
Zalophus californianus
. Six of the isolates were recovered from samples collected at post-mortem investigation. In 2 of the Scottish seals and in 3 of the California seals,
C. pinnipediorum
was the sole bacterial isolate recovered from abscesses present and suggests they may have resulted from conspecific or intraspecific bite wounds.
Brucella species infecting marine mammals was first reported in 1994 and in the years since has been documented in various species of pinnipeds and cetaceans. While these reports have included ...species that inhabit Arctic waters, the few available studies on bearded seals Erignathus barbatus have failed to detect Brucella infection to date. We report the first isolation of Brucella pinnipedialis from a bearded seal. The isolate was recovered from the mesenteric lymph node of a bearded seal that stranded in Scotland and typed as ST24, a sequence type associated typically with pinnipeds. Furthermore, serological studies of free-ranging bearded seals in their native waters detected antibodies to Brucella in seals from the Chukchi Sea (1990-2011; 19%) and Svalbard (1995-2007; 8%), whereas no antibodies were detected in bearded seals from the Bering Sea or Bering Strait or from captive bearded seals.
Approximately 70 km of fibers were drawn from synthetic silica rods and prooftested at four stresses between 1.4 GPa (200 ksi) and 3.5 GPa (500 ksi). The longest lengths achieved were 17.3 km passing ...1.4 GPa (200 ksi), 13.4 km passing both 2.1 GPa (300 ksi) and 2.8 GPa (400 ksi), and 9.3 km passing 3.5 GPa (500 ksi). Tensile tests comparing fibers previously prooftested at 1.4 GPa (200 ksi) with those tested through 3.5 GPa (500 ksi) show no detectable degradation due to the high-strength prooftesting.
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