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deadly virus killing key marine species

calamity

calamity

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The cause? Climate change of course.

Melting Arctic sea ice could cause the spread of a deadly virus to marine mammals - CNN


Melting Arctic sea ice has opened new pathways for Arctic and sub-Arctic species to interact, and that contact has introduced a potentially deadly virus to mammals in the Northern Pacific Ocean, according to a new study in Scientific Reports.

...two new channels linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans between Russia and Alaska. Animals who live there are interacting for the first time, creating a reservoir of the deadly pathogen Phocine distemper virus.

The virus, also called PDV, was first identified in European harbor seals, killing thousands in 1988 and again in 2002. It reemerged in 2004, but this time in northern sea otters in Alaska.

It was surprising that the disease jumped to a different species in a different ocean, said study author Tracey Goldstein, associate director of One Health Institute at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
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I'm not at all surprised by this. Just more evidence that climate change is real and it will wreak havoc across the globe.
 
Maybe. This is highly speculative and studies following the outbreak among European harbor seals in 1988 determined that this virus is actually native to the Arctic.
 
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