DISEASE TRANSMISSION IN DOLPHIN-ASSISTED THERAPY PROGRAMS: FACT OR FICTION?

Gregory D. Bossart V.M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Pathology
University of Miami School of Medicine, P.O. Box 016960 (R-46)
Miami, Florida 33101 -and- Miami Seaquarium, 4400 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, Florida 33149

The risk of disease transmission between dolphins and humans in dolphin assisted therapy programs has generated intense interest from program participants, oceanaria, public health officials, government agencies and animal welfare groups. Historically, this interest has been focused on zoonotic disease, but concerns have recently been expressed addressing disease transmission from humans to dolphins. In many instances, the issue of disease transmission has been clouded by misleading or inaccurate information.

Dolphins and humans naturally harbor a wide variety of viruses, bacteria and fungi. However, few of these organisms are pathogenic. while microorganisms transferred from dolphins to humans through distant water contact is of no significant concern, closer associations have posed some risk. The rare documented cases of zoonotic disease have involved stranded sick cetaceans and pinnipeds or animals undergoing necropsy examinations. Even under these circumstances, transmission of disease to humans is rare when compared to the number of stranded marine mammals cared for, and necropsy examinations carried out each year. Disease transmission between healthy dolphins and healthy humans who swim with them, if it occurs at all, is considerably less likely and probably no more likely than from home companion animals. The transmission of disease from humans to dolphins has not been reported and is probably similarly rare, or non-existent. This conclusion is based on the long historical interaction between the two species, lack of disease accounts in the medical literature and the evolutionary-based host specificity of most infectious agents.

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