The impact of persistent environmental pollutants on the incidence of morbillivirus infections in cetaceans

Abstract

The increase in human activity and urbanisation combined with demographic evolutions have led to an increase in global pollution, in particular marine pollution. Certain major environmental pollutants are found to persist in the ocean and bio-magnify along the food chain in different marine mammal species. These environmental pollutants have been proven to have negative effects on the health of marine life, and namely on the immune system of cetaceans, which are the population of interest in this paper. At the same time, an increase in certain viral outbreaks in marine mammals, such as cetacean morbillivirus, has also been observed during the last decades. It seems only fair that we ask ourselves whether these events can be linked in any way and, particularly, whether exposition to environmental pollutants undermines the immune system of cetaceans which, as a result, cannot fight off infections such as cetacean morbillivirus as it was initially intended to.