HEALTH-CET: Cetaceans as One-Health indicators

Cetaceans are homeothermic mammals, with a long life expectancy and located at the top of the food chain, which is why they are considered excellent sentinels of the marine environment and provide valuable information on the degree of degradation or conservation of the ecosystems of which they form part (umbrella species).
Bearing this premise in mind, this project focuses on the implementation of tools for monitoring the state of health and animal welfare of groups of cetaceans resident in marine protected areas in the Canary Islands (Natura 2000 Network), in order to assess the state of health of the ecosystems existing in these areas, as well as to evaluate the impact that factors such as climate change and marine pollution have on them.

These tools are based on the development of an analytical profile of hormonal and immunological markers to assess the state of health and welfare of resident cetacean groups through the analysis of skin biopsies. Firstly, the methodological development of this analytical profile will be carried out and validated using skin samples from dead stranded cetaceans (or cetaceans that die during rescue operations) from the Canary archipelago, which are stored in the cetacean tissue bank of the University Institute of Animal Health (IUSA) of the ULPGC.

Subsequently, the analytical profile will be validated in cetaceans under human care (considered healthy according to routine medical check-ups), establishing reference ranges for these indicators in blood and skin samples. Finally, biopsies taken from different groups of wild cetaceans will be analysed and compared according to the marine protected areas of the Canary Islands archipelago where they reside.

Finally, through synergy with the Marcet II project (Interreg-Mac 2014-2020), both the results of the analysis of oceanographic variables associated with climate change carried out in the marine areas evaluated and the analysis of emerging pollutants carried out in the biopsies included in the study will be integrated into the study. In this way, the joint analysis of these oceanographic, environmental and health data will allow a more accurate assessment of the good environmental status of these marine protected areas.

We consider that this study represents an important and innovative advance in the development of strategies for the conservation of the health and welfare of wild cetacean resident groups, as well as the health of marine ecosystems and associated public health (One Health).