research studies

research studies » current studies

In 2008, Morris Animal Foundation will fund nearly 200 new and continuing studies for dogs, cats, horses, llamas/alpacas, and wildlife as well as more than 40 veterinary student projects.

We also have numerous studies nearing completion. You can search our current study database by species and/or disease to learn more about the studies we are funding in the areas you care most about. The results will also show you whether a study is available for sponsorship.

D07ZO-026: Pilot Study: Molecular Identification of a Phocine Distemper-Like Virus in the Threatened Northern Sea Otter in Alaska

principal investigator: Dr. Tracey Goldstein, The Marine Mammal Center

Co-sponsor: Jim & Wendy Dickie

needs sponsorship

Year: 1 of 1. $6,590

The northern sea otter is found along the western coast of Washington State, Canada and Alaska, as well as the Aleutian Islands. Since the mid-1980s, populations in southwest Alaska have declined by 90 percent, and populations on the Aleutian Islands decreased at a rate of 17 percent per year during the 1990s through 2004. Recent work has indicated that nearly 40 percent of sea otters in the Kodiak region of Alaska have been exposed to a phocine distemper-like virus. These types of viruses have caused devastating disease in other marine mammals, and there is concern that they may prove equally devastating to sea otters. This project will identify this virus in samples from northern sea otters and compare them to other viruses. The identification of this virus may have important implications for population recovery of the otters and other marine mammal species.

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