On June 23rd 2007, the Danish Forest and Nature Agency in Copenhagen announced that on the island Anholt in the Danish Kattegat 41 seals were found dead. That is more than is usually found during this period.
Danish researchers from the Danish State Veterinarian Institute in Aarhus are now trying to determine the possible cause of the mortality. It is likely that the cause is the same as that of the mass mortality of seals in 1988 and 2002. Those epidemics also started in the Kattegat near the Danish island Anholt. Tens of thousands of seals died throughout Northwest Europe in 1988 and 2002 of the Phocine Distemper Virus, also known as PDV.
If it does concern an outbreak of PDV, we must take into account that in the Netherlands too a large number of seals are likely to die again. This could have disastrous effects on the seal population. Older animals are still immune to the disease, but the hundreds of animals born after the last epidemic awaits the threat of a terrible disease. During the last epidemics, the illness only took a couple of weeks to spread from the Kattegat into our regions. Moreover, the outbreaks in 1988 and 2002 happened earlier in the year (April and May respectively). Now, the birthing season is in full swing and many seals have grouped together on the sandbanks. The later the disease reaches our waters, the better the prospects are for our seals.
The SRRC is once more working closely with the virology department of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam under the guidance of prof dr Ab Osterhaus. We are keeping a watchful eye on the developments and are taking precautions. Within a couple of days the Danish researchers will be able to tell us more.
We are asking anyone who finds any sick or dead seals, to report this to the SRRC immediately so we can start examining the animals to see whether the virus has already reached the Dutch waters.06-24-2007 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
