Campus News

Dolphin die-off

Jerry Saliki, director of the virology section of the UGA Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Athens and a virology professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, was quoted in a Washington Post story about a die-off of bottlenose dolphins off the Atlantic Coast.

The die-off, which claimed hundreds of dolphins, is linked to ceteacean morbillivirus.

Saliki explained how the virus may have spread into the dolphin population.

“When the collective immunity drops below a certain, critical point, which we don’t really know for marine mammals, then the whole population becomes susceptible,” he told The Post.