Saving the Yangtze finless porpoise: Time is rapidly running out

Huang, Shiang-Lin; Mei, Zhigang; Hao, Yujiang; Zheng, Jinsong; Wang, Kexiong; Wang, Ding
Biological Conservation (2016)

The Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis) is the world's only freshwater porpoise and is endemic to the Yangtze River. However, it is now Critically Endangered, with its long-term survival…


Toxoplasma gondii in stranded marine mammals from the North Sea and Eastern Atlantic Ocean: findings and diagnostic difficulties

van de Velde, Norbert; Devleesschauwer, Brecht; Leopold, Mardik; Begeman, Lineke; IJsseldijk, Lonneke; Hiemstra, Sjoukje; IJzer, Jooske; Brownlow, Andrew; Davison, Nicholas; Jauniaux, Thierry; Siebert, Ursula; Dorny, Pierre; De Craeye, Stéphane
Veterinary Parasitology (2016)

The occurrence of the zoonotic protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii in marine mammals remains a poorly understood phenomenon. In this study, samples from 631 marine mammal species and 34 European otters…


Central nervous system disease and genital disease in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) are associated with different herpesviruses

van Elk, Cornelis; van de Bildt, Marco; van Run, Peter; de Jong, Anton; Getu, Sarah; Verjans, Georges; Osterhaus, Albert; Kuiken, Thijs
Veterinary Research (2016)

Herpesvirus infection causes disease of variable severity in many species, including cetaceans. However, little is known about herpesvirus infection in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena), despite being widespread in temperate coastal…


Spatially explicit analysis of genome-wide SNPs detects subtle population structure in a mobile marine mammal, the harbor porpoise

Lah, Ljerka; Trense, Daronja; Benke, Harald; Berggren, Per; Gunnlaugsson, Þorvaldur; Lockyer, Christina; Öztürk, Ayaka; Öztürk, Bayram; Pawliczka, Iwona; Roos, Anna; Siebert, Ursula; Skóra, Krzysztof; Víkingsson, Gísli; Tiedemann, Ralph
PLOS ONE (2016)

The population structure of the highly mobile marine mammal, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), in the Atlantic shelf waters follows a pattern of significant isolation-by-distance. The population structure of harbor…


Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and their hydroxylated and methoxylated analogues in the blood of harbor, Dall’s and finless porpoises from the Japanese coastal waters

Ochiai, Mari; Nomiyama, Kei; Isobe, Tomohiko; Yamada, Tadasu K.; Tajima, Yuko; Matsuda, Ayaka; Shiozaki, Akira; Matsuishi, Takashi; Amano, Masao; Iwata, Hisato; Tanabe, Shinsuke
Marine Environmental Research (2016)

This study investigated the accumulation of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and their hydroxylated and methoxylated analogues (OH-PBDEs and MeO-PBDEs) in the blood of harbor porpoises, Dall's porpoises, and finless porpoises…


Comparative anatomy of the bony labyrinth of extant and extinct porpoises (Cetacea: Phocoenidae)

Racicot, Rachel A.; Gearty, William; Kohno, Naoki; Flynn, John J.
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (2016)

The inner ear anatomy of cetaceans, now more readily accessible by means of nondestructive high-resolution X-ray computed tomographic (CT) scanning, provides a window into their acoustic abilities and ecological preferences.…