A gang of drug-resistant infections, presumably on
the run from hospitals and landfills, is cropping up in marine mammals, weaving a web of disease that extends deep into the ocean
searchers are zeroing in on its possible
The whale lay dead on the concrete This was obviously one sick whale. causes, which range from hospital waste lab floor, all 13 feet and 1,600 pounds Bogomolni noted a greenish froth to bacteria offloaded by beachgoers. of him. He had washed up late the and congestion in the lungs, signs of Theyre also starting to worry that the night before on a Massachusetts beach, a severe pneumonia. The brain of the pathogens may be sickening species alive but very ill. Marine biologists whale was inflamed, its blood vessels already stressed by ship collisions, from the New England Aquarium riddled with lesions, and its outer dwindling prey, and other problems. made the call to euthanize him, then membrane hemorrhaging, indicating And one cutting-edge line of research trucked the body 95 kilometers south another serious infection. has uncovered a more chilling possi- to the necropsy laboratory at Woods bility: that a new, SARS-like pandemic Hole Oceanographic Institution. But When the lab work came back a could rise from the sea and spread this wasnt just any whale. It was a Cu- few days later, it revealed something among people. viers beaked whale, a rarely glimpsed unexpected: a number of microorgan- Over the past decade or so, just species that keeps to waters more than isms normally associated with infec- about everywhere scientists have 1,000 meters deep and is almost never tions in humans, not marine mammals. looked, theyve been discovering spotted near the coast. Now, more than Equally intriguing, the whale was marine animals carrying microbes that a dozen researchers from four institu- harboring several bacterial strains that ordinarily infect people. The influenza tions were trying to piece together the were resistant to multiple antibiotics. B virus, for instance, is normally specif- story behind its stranding. Did one of those eyebrow-raising bugs ic to humans but showed up in harbor Marine veterinary scientist Michael cause the health problems that trig- seals in the Netherlands. Caspian seals Moore led the necropsy, assisted by gered the whales stranding? were discovered carrying antibodies research associate Andrea Bogomolni. Its impossible to say, but its clear to both influenza B and human strains After inspecting marks on the skin, the that the unfortunate whale fits into an of influenza A. Atlantic bottlenose team severed the head with a sharp ominous trend. Microbes that cause dolphins in South Carolina were found knife and sent it into the next room stubborn infections in people are carrying the superbug methicillin-re- for CT scanning. They then proceeded cropping up in marine animals with sistant Staphylococcus aureus. The list inward to dissect and examine each of unsettling frequency. The study of this goes on, and marine mammals, seabirds, the whale organ. phenomenon is in its infancy, but re- fish, and plenty of shellfish are on it.
illustration by Hajar Aldawood Astrovirus illustration: www.pnas.org FORCE OF NATURE 3
Not everyone is so reticent. Its hard to be when youve got five dead seal pups on your hands, victims of a Pseudomonas strain resistant to every standard antibiotic. The pups died this spring in the care of Frances Gulland, director of veterinary science at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California. Gulland says the centers rehabilitation hospital took in the pups, along with almost 100 others, because their mothers had abandoned them on the beach after they were disturbed by people. The five pups developed pneumonia and blood infections, and Gullands team pinpointed Pseudomo- nas as the infectious agent. They treated the pups with several antibiotics in succession, but nothing worked. Image of a typical positron emission tomography (PET) facility She says she sees about ten such cases a year in marine mammals deaths by pneumonia, hemorrhagic Still, no one knew how pervasive anthropogenic contamination is to diarrhea, or blood infections caused the bugs might be throughout an blame. The reason? Widespread use of by bugs that used to be treatable. The ecosystem. So in 2005, Moore, Bo- antibiotics in medicine and agricul- prevalence of antibiotic resistance in gomolni, and their colleagues began ture has given rise to bacteria that are the offending microorganisms has a pioneering, three-year study to see invulnerable to many drugs. These re- convinced Gulland that they must have what animals in the waters along the sistant bacteria have started spilling into come from either a person or another northeastern U.S. coast were carry- the environment and trickling into a land animal or have been exposed to ing. The collection effort alone was variety of speciesindeed, resistant drug-laden pollution. huge. Birds and mammals stranded or bacteria were rampant in the animals inadvertently caught in fishing gear examined by the Woods Hole team. Ten cases a year may not sound were shipped to Woods Hole from up Fifty-nine percent of the strains like much, but Gulland points out that and down the coast. The team gathered they tested were resistant to at least one many more animals may be dying at samples from a shark-fishing tourna- antibiotic, and a whopping 16 percent sea. And even if healthy populations ment and from live animals on remote were resistant to five or more. The star can sustain a few extra mortalities, shores. They necropsied lifeless whale of the show was found in a harp seal threatened ones may not. While the hulks; swabbed and swiped away at with severe lung congestion: a strain overall data are scant, Gulland says, the feces, blowholes, internal organs, and of Chryseobacterium indologenes, an evidence on hand suggests its time to infected tissues; and sent samples off for agent of hospital-acquired infections in take pathogen pollution seriouslyes- culturing or genetic screening. What people, that was resistant to 13 out of pecially when seen in the context of came back was a list of dozens of bac- 16 antibiotics tested. (1, 2) The antibi- other contaminants that threaten ma- teria known to infect people. otic resistance piece gives it a smell of rine mammals. She says, by the time For a clue to the microbes origins, human impact, Moore says. you realize its a problem its going to Moore and Bogomolnis team test- Still, the team interprets its findings be really extensive. ed over half the bacterial strains for cautiously. Given that little is known So how might these bacteria make resistance to human and veterinary about marine species microbiology, it the journey from a hospital to a whale antibiotics. When such resistance shows could very well be that this is normal, living miles offshore? The biggest up in force, it raises the possibility that says Rebecca Gast. potential pathways are familiar ones:
4 NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2015
sewers and runoff. For instance, scien- and dumps. From there, Ellis What we do to the tists recently reported that sea otters in postulates, the gulls could carry California host a variety of gut bacteria E. coli and other pathogens out ocean and the animals in known to infect peopleand otters onto the beaches and waters of living near heavily populated areas New England and possibly on it, we are ultimately also or high-runoff flows had the greatest down to their Florida wintering risk of infection. Freshwater runoff is grounds. (3) doing to ourselves also thought to deliver two land-based protozoan parasitesone shed by cats Some of the bacterial sourc- marine mammals must now consider and the other by opossumsinto the es are even more unexpectedand that a bite or a scratch could result sea, where they have been killing otters could change the way you look at in an infection resistant to a slew of with fatal brain disease. your summertime beach vacation. Lisa antibiotics. More disturbingly, it means But harmful microorganisms dont Plano of the University of Miamis that the ocean is awash in potentially have to flow down a pipe or a stream. Miller School of Medicine has shown harmful bugs, and our own germs may Julie Ellis, a Tufts University ecolo- that people can introduce microbes, be multiplying and traveling long dis- gist who was a co-author in Moore including MRSA, straight into seawa- tances inside its animals. Its definitely and Bogomolnis research, showed as ter by merely wading or swimming. out there in lots of our top-level preda- much by studying the origin of E. Apparently, the water simply washes tors, and that means high levels of the coli strains in the feces of gulls on a the microbes from your nose, your skin, food chain, says Jason Blackburn, an Maine island. Shed tracked the gulls or wherever you happen to be carrying ecologist at the University of Florida carefully and watched them engaging them. This has been going on for as who discovered sharks and fish car- in a favorite pastime: hanging out and long as bacteria have been colonizing rying multi-drug-resistant bacteria in foraging at local landfills and sewage people, Plano says. We just havent Louisiana, Massachusetts, Florida, and lagoons. Thinking that the gulls could been looking for these things. Even so, Belize. (4) Thats not all that far from be picking up more than just lunch, Plano emphasizes that theres no reason our dinner plates. Ellis and her colleagues decided to see to avoid the beach, since your chances of picking up a bug there are Put another way, we eat the same very low. seafood and play in the same water As for how terrestrial as marine mammals. Their immune microbes may make their way systems and symptoms are similar to into marine animals, there are ours. If theyre picking up infectious Astrovirus Photo by GrahamColm
more questions than answers. microorganisms, theres a chance we
The animals could pick up could too. What we do to the ocean terrestrial strains straight from and the animals in it, we are ultimately the water or from prey. Then also doing to ourselves, says Gast, the again, the animals could Woods Hole microbiologist. pick up marine strains that This prospect of ocean-borne have acquired resistance to illness is troubling enough. But what if antibiotics from exposure to marine mammals are acting like petri Electron micrograph of Astroviruses waste-borne drugs, microbes. dishes, brewing up new pathogens that Whether the animals go on to infect could jump back to land and sweep whether they could trace the E. coli one another is another big unknown. through human populations? Thats the the gulls were carrying back to the The sheer ubiquity of marine question Hendrik Nollens inadvertent- lagoons and landfills in nearby New mammals carrying these bugs raises ly stumbled upon last year. Hampshire. They collected feces from a growing concern for the health of A marine-animal veterinarian the gulls at their island nests, and, sure human beings, even though cases of based at Hubbs-SeaWorld Research enough, the E. coli strains inside bore a people being sickened from contact are Institute in San Diego, Nollens and his striking genetic resemblance to strains rare. For starters, researchers and others colleagues have pushed the boundar- they gathered from the treatment plants who come into regular contact with ies in figuring out how to diagnose