Robert Ossiboff News Today

When a bottlenose dolphin was found dead in Florida's Dixie County earlier this year, a marine animal rescue team from the University of Florida (UF) did not immediately suspect anything out of the ordinary when they performed a routine necropsy. Tests for common causes of death turned up negative in this young male dolphin found at Horseshoe Beach.

The findings represent the first time a highly pathogenic form of the virus, which has devastated bird populations this year, has been detected in cetaceans.