{"id":21380,"date":"2025-02-01T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21380"},"modified":"2025-02-01T18:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T18:25:17","slug":"great-white-sharks-washing-up-dead-in-canada-with-brain-swelling-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21380","title":{"rendered":"Great White Sharks Washing Up Dead in Canada With Brain Swelling"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Faced with a rash of shark deaths marked by brain swelling, Canadian and American scientists are trying to solve a marine mystery.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

The first great white shark was found dead in August 2023 on a beach in a national park on Prince Edward Island, Canada: a young male, 500 pounds, 8 feet 9 inches from snout to tail. Park workers soon arrived with a pickup truck, loaded the carcass and drove it to a cooler at the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island. Aside from some scrapes acquired en route, the shark showed no signs of injury.<\/p>\n

Dr. Megan Jones, a veterinary pathologist at the college and regional director of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, or C.W.H.C., began a necropsy early the next morning, while the body \u201cwas really, really fresh,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we look through the microscope at the tissues, they\u2019re very well preserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The C.W.H.C., a network affiliated with Canada\u2019s veterinary schools, studies wildlife health issues. In 30 years, however, the group had never come across a great white, and it was not at all obvious how this one had died. Starvation was ruled out from the very first incision, when the shark\u2019s 76-pound liver, where the animal stores fat, spilled onto the examination table. Other organs showed no sign of trauma. Only later, after microscopic testing, did the cause of death become apparent: meningoencephalitis, an inflammation of brain tissues.<\/p>\n

At first Dr. Jones found the diagnosis more interesting than alarming. Then came the other sharks. Over the next few months the C.W.H.C. received either whole animals or tissue samples from four more white sharks found beached in eastern Canada. \u201cThree of these five seem to have the same potentially infectious disease affecting their brain,\u201d Dr. Jones said. \u201cWe need to know more about what that is.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Those five white sharks are among nine known deaths dating from a shark found on July 4, 2022, in Massachusetts; most of those had brain inflammation. Such inflammation has been seen in other shark species, but the cause in those cases \u2014 bacterial infection, for instance \u2014 was obvious, unlike in white sharks. Dr. Jones is now part of a small group of scientists in the United States and Canada who are trying to untangle the mystery \u2014 and determine whether white sharks are facing a broader threat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
A great white shark swimming near the shore on Cape Cod in 2016.<\/span>Wayne Davis\/Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, via Associated Press<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faced with a rash of shark deaths marked by brain swelling, Canadian and American scientists are trying to solve a marine mystery.The first great white shark was found dead in August 2023 on a beach in a national park on Prince Edward Island, Canada: a young male, 500 pounds, 8 feet 9 inches from snout to tail. Park workers soon arrived with a pickup truck, loaded the carcass and drove it to a cooler at the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island. Aside from some scrapes acquired en route, the shark showed no signs of injury.Dr. Megan Jones, a veterinary pathologist at the college and regional director of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, or C.W.H.C., began a necropsy early the next morning, while the body \u201cwas really, really fresh,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we look through the microscope at the tissues, they\u2019re very well preserved.\u201dThe C.W.H.C., a network affiliated with Canada\u2019s veterinary schools, studies wildlife health issues. In 30 years, however, the group had never come across a great white, and it was not at all obvious how this one had died. Starvation was ruled out from the very first incision, when the shark\u2019s 76-pound liver, where the animal stores fat, spilled onto the examination table. Other organs showed no sign of trauma. Only later, after microscopic testing, did the cause of death become apparent: meningoencephalitis, an inflammation of brain tissues.At first Dr. Jones found the diagnosis more interesting than alarming. Then came the other sharks. Over the next few months the C.W.H.C. received either whole animals or tissue samples from four more white sharks found beached in eastern Canada. \u201cThree of these five seem to have the same potentially infectious disease affecting their brain,\u201d Dr. Jones said. \u201cWe need to know more about what that is.\u201dThose five white sharks are among nine known deaths dating from a shark found on July 4, 2022, in Massachusetts; most of those had brain inflammation. Such inflammation has been seen in other shark species, but the cause in those cases \u2014 bacterial infection, for instance \u2014 was obvious, unlike in white sharks. Dr. Jones is now part of a small group of scientists in the United States and Canada who are trying to untangle the mystery \u2014 and determine whether white sharks are facing a broader threat.A great white shark swimming near the shore on Cape Cod in 2016.Wayne Davis\/Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, via Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21366,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21380"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21382,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21380\/revisions\/21382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}