Abstract

Over the past six years, the Navy Marine Mammal Program and its collaborative partners, including Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, University of Florida, the Marine Mammal Center, Mote Marine Laboratories, and SeaWorld, have been funded by the Office of Naval Research and the Department of Defense to discover viruses in marine mammals and to assess their risks to Navy dolphins and sea lions. Findings from this research and others have demonstrated that 1) a wide variety of viruses are associated with infectious disease in marine mammals, 2) a number of marine mammal viruses are closely related to those that infect humans, and 3) human and marine mammal viruses can recombine and create viruses that likely infect both marine mammals and humans. The potential role of the ocean in harboring pandemic pathogens is unknown, and marine mammals may provide important clues regarding which pathogens have the greatest pandemic potential. With the support of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and to investigate the pandemic potential of ocean-borne pathogens, the following actions are being implemented over 24 months: 1) literature review of pathogens that infect marine mammals and have the greatest pandemic potential, 2) development of a Working Group of leading experts in emerging infectious diseases and pandemics, 3) implementation of targeted, near-term proof of concept projects supportive of the overall project goal, and 4) development of a 5-year investment strategy to support longer-term research projects. To date, a summary of marine mammal pathogens has been completed; a Working Group has been established, including over 20 members from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mayo Clinic, Stanford University, Columbia University, Naval Health Research Center, and the University of Florida; and proof of concept projects with Working Group members are underway. Use of multi-institutional collaborations of experts has been an effective and productive means to address larger scale questions with minimal resources.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the staff at the Navy Marine Mammal Program for their assistance in gathering data as well as the advisors and experts involved in this project. This research is being performed while Dr. Rebecca Rivera holds a National Research Council Research Postdoctoral Associateship Award at the Navy Marine Mammal Program.

* Presenting author