It concerns the bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, which can cause blood poisoning in cetaceans and occurs in more animals. The bacteria can cause a disease in humans called spot disease or fish dandruff, especially if they touch dead animals.
Porpoises often wash ashore in the Netherlands, but the fact that so many were found in a short period of time was ‘unprecedented’, according to the SOS Dolfijn foundation.
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Researchers from Wageningen University & Research and Utrecht University examined 22 fish, three quarters of which were found to carry the bacteria. The animals probably died about the same time.
Good condition
Until their death, the porpoises were in a reasonable or good condition, so sudden death is likely, according to the researchers. Eleven had empty stomachs and others hadn’t eaten much either. The researchers don’t know what caused this.
Much is still unclear about what exactly happened. “Special weather conditions may have been partly responsible for the massive washing up of the animals, which must have died far out at sea,” the researchers say.
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