- STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters)
- A seal epidemic which has killed at least 18,000 animals -- about half
the seal population of north-western Europe, is over for now, Swedish scientists
said Tuesday.
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- The first victims of the phocine distemper virus (PDV),
which weakens the seals' immune systems and causes pneumonia-like symptoms,
were found in May on the Danish island of Anholt in the Kattegat Strait
between Sweden and Denmark.
-
- The epizootic -- an epidemic among animals -- resembled
a 1988 PDV outbreak which also killed some 18,000 seals. Like 14 years
ago, the virus spread from Kattegat to the German and Dutch coasts as well
as south-eastern England.
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- "Now the population has declined so much that we
will probably not see an epizootic next year..." said Magnus Lejhall,
marine biologist at the Tjarno laboratorium in southern Sweden.
-
- He said scientists, who have taken samples from more
than 2,000 seals killed by the virus over the summer, were now collecting
blood samples of live seals to study their immune system.
-
- Scientists are also trying to find out why the virus
had lain dormant for the past 14 years and what caused the outbreak.
-
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