Friday, 03-05-2010
CIMA Research Foundation has joined the Italian stranding network collecting data on cetaceans ...
Since January 2010, CIMA Research Foundation has joined the Italian stranding network collecting data on cetaceans stranded off Savona and Genoa for the "Database of Cetacean strandings on the Italian coasts". The database was established by the Italian Ministry for the Environment (MATTM) to monitor the impacts of human activities on cetacean populations.
At the same time, a new collaboration with the "The Mediterranean Marine Mammals Tissue Bank" started. The tissue bank, located at the University of Padua, has been established by MATTM following the specific request from ACCOBAMS, the international organization dedicated to cetacean conservation in the Mediterranean sea. This bank has the purpose to preserve the tissue samples collected from cetacean organs and to eventually distribute them to interested researchers. In particular, these samples can be used to establish the cause of the death and to determine eventual pathologies. This bank is a fundamental genetic catalogue of Mediterranean cetacean populations.
Joining these two projects, CIMA Research Foundation commits itself to actively participate to the cetacean stranding network, notifying stranding events, sending photographs and biometric measures. CIMA Research Foundation proposes also to realize necropsies in its laboratories. Doing so, CIMA Research Foundation supports Port authorities and Forest Offices.
The last stranding event occurred during the night between January 9th and 10th on Spotorno beach. The stranded animal was a striped dolphin, the most common dolphin species in the Ligurian sea. The stranded specimen was a young female, of about 2 meters and 80 kilos. The necropsy was realized the following day, in collaboration with Dr. Cristiana Tittarelli, veterinary of "Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta". Thanks to her presence, it was possible to point out the cause of death: a pneumonia.
At the same time, a new collaboration with the "The Mediterranean Marine Mammals Tissue Bank" started. The tissue bank, located at the University of Padua, has been established by MATTM following the specific request from ACCOBAMS, the international organization dedicated to cetacean conservation in the Mediterranean sea. This bank has the purpose to preserve the tissue samples collected from cetacean organs and to eventually distribute them to interested researchers. In particular, these samples can be used to establish the cause of the death and to determine eventual pathologies. This bank is a fundamental genetic catalogue of Mediterranean cetacean populations.
Joining these two projects, CIMA Research Foundation commits itself to actively participate to the cetacean stranding network, notifying stranding events, sending photographs and biometric measures. CIMA Research Foundation proposes also to realize necropsies in its laboratories. Doing so, CIMA Research Foundation supports Port authorities and Forest Offices.
The last stranding event occurred during the night between January 9th and 10th on Spotorno beach. The stranded animal was a striped dolphin, the most common dolphin species in the Ligurian sea. The stranded specimen was a young female, of about 2 meters and 80 kilos. The necropsy was realized the following day, in collaboration with Dr. Cristiana Tittarelli, veterinary of "Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta". Thanks to her presence, it was possible to point out the cause of death: a pneumonia.
