What is dolphin pox? Does it kill dolphins?
Dolphin pox is a skin disease of cetaceans. Both free-living and captive dolphins have been prone to show these skin lesions. The lesions are discrete, raised or smooth, round to irregularly round groups of pigmentation that form rings ranging from 1 to 5 cm in diameter. Electron microscopic studies of the lesions have revealed viral particles consistent with a poxvirus. The development of these lesions is thought to be associated with stress, poor environmental quality, and poor general health of affected dolphins. A study done by Baker, concluded that of the cetaceans surveyed in his study, 69% were infected by some kind of skin lesion. Some were caused by trauma and others were from a viral infection by the poxvirus. However, from lectures I have attended by marine mammal pathologists in British Columbia, my understanding is that although skin lesions are almost always present in stranded cetaceans, they are rarely if ever the cause of death. Sometimes the opening of such a viral in
