TB TRANSPORTER: Did pinnipeds like this sea lion help spread tuberculosis to the New World?SARA MARSTELLER
Sweeping high-powered jets of fresh water across the surfaces of the sea lions’ night enclosure was just another routine task for zoo workers in the Netherlands, who spent an hour or two each day sanitizing the space to keep the animals healthy. But in September 2006, a five-year-old female sea lion who had been sick for nearly 10 months succumbed to an infection; necropsy showed tubercular lesions in her kidneys, spleen, liver, lungs, and other organs. Over the next two months, six of 25 zookeepers (as well as thirteen more seals in the colony) tested positive for tuberculosis infections. Researchers surmised that the bacteria had been transmitted from the sea lion to its caretakers, perhaps by way of the urine and feces that became aerosolized ...
