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Dead Florida dolphin was infected with highly pathogenic bird flu (www.wfla.com)

submitted 4 months ago by nekandro@lemmy.ml to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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[-] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 27 points 4 months ago

The dolphin was diagnosed only a few weeks ago, but it died over two years ago in March 2022.

[-] JetpackJackson@feddit.de 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

And they kept it, like, in some preservative or something, to study it? I'm trying to understand the timeline here Edit: OK I read the article but im wondering why we're hearing about it now rather than 2 years ago?

[-] Paraponera_clavata@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

I'm guessing, but it's probably because they are testing for bird flu on a long-dead dolphin via necropsy?

[-] JetpackJackson@feddit.de 3 points 4 months ago

Im just confused why it would take so long, does it normally take that long to examine/run tests and stuff?

[-] Paraponera_clavata@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

Dolphin died March 2022, then the publisher received the manuscript in June 2023. Then review took until 10 April 2024.

More generally, they weren't doing this in response to the recent outbreak, it was sort of a coincidence that the disease gained media attention at the same time of this paper's publication. Academic researchers are expected to publish around 2 papers a year, and each paper tends to take a couple years.

tl;dr: it's an academic study, not the dolphin CDC. blame the publishers and universities, not the researchers.

[-] JetpackJackson@feddit.de 1 points 4 months ago

Ah OK that makes more sense! Thank you for the clarification!

[-] OpenStars@discuss.online 3 points 4 months ago

"engagement" aka profits?

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

That was about the time we started hearing about bird flu infecting seals, wasn't it? Seems like marine mammals were the bridge species, and then it went from them to cows.

The next jump might be ferrets or mink (I remember from COVID that they have very similar respiratory systems to humans). Or it might just jump over them right to morons drinking raw milk I guess.

[-] harcesz@szmer.info 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Inaccessible from EU. Alternate source - scitechdaily.com

Researchers documented the first North American cetacean case of avian influenza in a Florida dolphin, underscoring the need for further research on this cross-species virus transmission.

The case of a Florida bottlenose dolphin found with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, or HPAIV — a discovery made by University of Florida researchers in collaboration with multiple other agencies and one of the first reports of a constantly growing list of mammals affected by this virus — has been published in Communications Biology.