Papers & Articles 184 The Veterinary Record, February 9, 2008 HOEFER, H. L. & BELL, J. A. (2004) Gastrointestinal diseases. In Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents: Clinical Medicine and Surgery. 2nd edn. Eds K. E. Quesenberry, J. W. Carpenter. St Louis, W. B. Saunders. pp 25-40 MCREYNOLDS, C., & MACY, D. (1997a) Feline infectious peritonitis. Part I. Etiology and diagnosis. Compendium on Continuing Education for the Practicing Veterinarian 19, 1007-1016 MCREYNOLDS, C. & MACY, D. (1997b) Feline infectious peritonitis. Part II. Treatment and prevention. Compendium on Continuing Education for the Practicing Veterinarian 19, 1111-1116 MARTÍNEZ, J., RAMIS, A. J., REINACHER, M. & PERPIÑÁN, D. (2006) Detection of feline infectious peritonitis virus-like antigen in ferrets. Veterinary Record 158, 523 MORRISON, W. B. (1998) Plasma cell neoplasms. In Cancer in Dogs and Cats: Medical and Surgical Management. Ed W. B. Morrison. Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. pp 697-704 PALLEY, L. S., CORNING, B. F., FOX, J. G., MURPHY, J. C. & GOULD, D. H. (1992) Parvovirus-associated syndrome (Aleutian disease) in two ferrets. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 201, 100-106 PEDERSEN, N. C. (1995) An overview of feline enteric coronavirus and infec- tious peritonitis virus infections. Feline Practice 23, 7-20 PETRIE, J. P. & MORRISEY, J. K. (2004) Cardiovascular and other diseases. In Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents: Clinical Medicine and Surgery. Eds K. E. Quesenberry, J. W. Carpenter. St Louis, W. B. Saunders. pp 58-71 PORTER, H. G., PORTER, D. D. & LARSEN, A. E. (1982) Aleutian disease in ferrets. Infection and Immunity 36, 379-386 UNE, Y., WAKIMOTO, Y., NAKANO, Y., KONISHI, M. & NOMURA, Y. (2000) Spontaneous Aleutian disease in a ferret. Journal of Veterinary Medical Science 62, 553-555 VAIL, D. M. & MACEWEN, E. G. (2001) Feline lymphoma and leukemias. In Small Animal Clinical Oncology. 3rd edn. Eds S. J. Withrow, E. G. MacEwen. Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders. pp 590-611 WEISS, R. C. (1994) Feline infectious peritonitis and other coronaviruses. In The Cat: Diseases and Clinical Management. Ed R. G. Sherding. Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders. pp 447-449 WELCHMAN, D. B., OXENHAM, M. & DONE, S. H. (1993) Aleutian disease in domestic ferrets: diagnostic findings and survey results. Veterinary Record 132, 479-484 WILLIAMS, B. H., KIUPEL, M., WEST, K. H., RAYMOND, J. T., GRANT, C. K. & GLICKMAN, L. T. (2000) Coronavirus-associated epizootic catarrhal enteritis in ferrets. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 217, 526-530 WILLIAMS, B. H. & WEISS, C. A. (2004) Neoplasia. In Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents: Clinical Medicine and Surgery. Eds K. E. Quesenberry, J. W. Carpenter. St Louis, W. B. Saunders. pp 91-106 Short Communications Unusual cetacean mortality event in Taiwan, possibly linked to naval activities W-C. Yang, L-S. Chou, P. D. Jepson, R. L. Brownell, Jr, D. Cowan, P-H. Chang, H-I. Chiou, C-J. Yao, T. K. Yamada, J-T. Chiu, P-J. Wang, A. Fernández SINCE the mid-1980s, a number of mass strandings of ceta- ceans, mainly involving deep-diving beaked whales, have occurred coinciding with the use of mid-frequency active sonar by the military (Frantzis 1998, Anon 2001, Jepson and others 2003, Fernández and others 2005, Cox and oth- ers 2006). The exact mechanism behind these sonar-induced strandings remains uncertain, but acute systemic microhaem- orrhages and gas and fat emboli were found in 10 beaked whales that mass-stranded during a naval exercise in the Canary Islands in 2002 (Jepson and others 2003, Fernández and others 2005). An adverse behavioural response to expo- sure to noise (Jepson and others 2003, Fernández and oth- ers 2005, Cox and others 2006), or a direct physical effect of sound energy on gas bubble precursors in the animal’s body (Houser and others 2001, Crum and others 2005, Cox and others 2006), have been considered plausible mechanisms in diving marine mammals for generating gas bubbles in tis- sues supersaturated with gas following decompression, or via decompression-related transintestinal passage of intestinal gas (Jepson and others 2005). In recent years, an increasing number of unusual mor- tality events, defined largely as a marked increase in multi- ple strandings compared with previous records, have been reported (Hohn and others 2006). This short communica- tion describes the pathological findings from a mixed-spe- cies unusual mortality event involving deep-diving cetacean species in Taiwan in 2005, spatially and temporally linked to naval exercises near Taiwan. An increase in cetacean strandings was reported along the coast of Taiwan from July 19 to August 13, 2005. These strand- ings involved 23 animals in total: 13 dwarf sperm whales (Kogia sima), two Longman’s beaked whales (Indopacetus pacificus), two Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoploden densirostris), two pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps), two striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), a pantropical spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata) and a short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala mac- rorhynchus). Longman’s beaked whale is only known from eight previous strandings in various locations around the world (Yamada 2002, Dalebout and others 2003, Acebes and 2005). Fifteen of the 23 animals were initially reported as live- strandings, of which three were released back to sea; their fate was unknown. Twenty of the strandings (87 per cent) occurred in northern Taiwan. According to the 15-year records of strandings in Taiwan maintained by the Cetacean Research Laboratory of the National Taiwan University and the Taiwan Cetacean Society (L-S. Chou, unpublished information), 64 cetaceans, including only 18 Kogia species and no beaked whales, were found stranded in the months of July and August from 1990 to 2004. In addition, the observer effort for record- ing cetacean strandings in Taiwan has been relatively constant since 1996. For these reasons, it was considered the strand- ings in 2005 were ‘unusual’, and would qualify as an unusual mortality event on the basis of the first five of the seven cri- teria developed by the Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events in the USA (2006). An unusual mor- tality event is different from an atypical mass stranding event as described by Frantzis (1998) and Cox and others (2006). Veterinary Record (2008) 162, 184-186 W-C. Yang, PhD, L-S. Chou, PhD, Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, P-H. Chang, Institute of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, No 1, Sec 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan P. D. Jepson, BVMS, PhD, MRCVS, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY R. L. Brownell, Jr, PhD, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, 1352 Lighthouse Avenue, Pacific Grove, CA 93950, USA D. Cowan, PhD, Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77555, USA H-I. Chiou, Division of Animal Medicine, Animal Technology Institute Taiwan, 52 Kedong 2nd Road, Miaoli, Taiwan