Post-Mortem Findings in Cetaceans Stranded on the Italian Coastline

Introduction: Stranded cetaceans offer a unique opportunity for collecting data on thehealth status of dolphin and whale populations living in the open sea. We report hereinthe post-mortem findings observed in 7 odontocetes found stranded between 2001 and2004 on the Italian coastline.Material and Metod: Five bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), one striped dolphin(Stenella coeruleoalba) and one unidentified delphinid were investigated. During postmortemexamination, their tissues were formalin-fixed and subsequently processed forhistopathology. Suitable histochemical techniques were applied on some specimens, withselected tissue sections being also submitted to immunohistochemistry for Morbillivirusand Papillomavirus antigen detection.Results: Pneumonia was the most commonly encountered lesion, especially Halocercusdelphini-associated bronchopneumonia. Additional findings were nephritis, hepatitis andPholeter gastrophilus-associated gastritis. Granulomatous meningoencephalitis byCladosporium spp. was observed in a female bottlenose dolphin, while papilloma-likelesions were observed on the rostrum of another female bottlenose dolphin, with noPapillomavirus antigen being detected. Immunohistochemistry yielded no evidence ofMorbillivirus infection in any of the investigated cetaceans.Conclusion: In agreement with other authors, pneumonia was a very frequent diseasecondition also in the cetaceans included in this study, in which mycoticmeningoencephalitis by Cladosporium spp. may be regarded as a remarkablepathological finding.[...]