<i>Francisella tularensis</i> Subspecies <i>holarctica</i> in Stranded Beluga Whales, Cook Inlet, Alaska, USA
We report fatal tularemia in stranded beluga whales in Cook Inlet, Alaska, USA. Francisella tularensis was detected by nanopore metagenomics, confirmed by quantitative PCR and immunohistochemistry, and characterized as F. tularensis subspecies holarctica by multilocus sequence typing. Our findings should be considered when assessing biosecurity and marine mammal health in the North Pacific.
Authors
- Kristy L. Pabilonia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7741-8497)
- Ganna Kovalenko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4929-0841)
- Jeremy Buttler
- Laurel Respicio-Kingry
- Eric Bortz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1376-0012)
- Kathy Burek Huntington (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6903-735X)
- Elizabeth A. Dietrich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1698-9568)
- Christina B. Weller
- Jeannine M. Petersen
- Natalie Rouse
Publication Details
- Journal
- Emerging infectious diseases
- Published
- 2025-05-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3201/eid3106.250033
- Primary Topic
- Bacillus and Francisella bacterial research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00