Dauphin Island Sea Lab Friday Seminar Series hosts with *Dr. Gaby Hernandez Mora*!
*Dr. Gabriela Hernandez Mora* is director of the Veterinary Medical Microbiology Unit of the National Animal Health Service (SENASA), Costa Rica *Seminar title: Brucellosis as a cause of strandings in the Eastern Tropical Pacific* *Friday, Mar 14, at 12p* *Shelby Auditorium on DISL campus* or online via *Zoom: https://disl.zoom.us/j/86852063030 <https://disl.zoom.us/j/86852063030>* *Research bio of Gabriela Hernandez Mora: * Dr. Gabriela Hernández Mora is a veterinarian and researcher at the National University of Costa Rica (UNA). Since 2009, Gabriela has been the director of the Veterinary Medical Microbiology Unit of the National Animal Health Service (SENASA) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of the government of Costa Rica. Her main interest is the diagnosis and pathobiology of Brucella infections in marine mammals and other domestic and wild animals. She completed her Master's degree in Microbiology (2011) and PhD in Science (2019) with an emphasis on the epidemiology of brucellosis in terrestrial and marine mammals at the University of Costa Rica (UCR). During her PhD she also worked with human brucellosis caused by Brucella melitensis in patients in Vietnam admitted to the Clinical Research Unit of the University of Oxford, in Ho Chi Ming City. Since 2007 she is a member of the International Association of Aquatic Animal Medicine (IAAAM), and since 2021 she has been part of the Board of Directors of said International Association. Likewise, since 2017, she is a member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Strandings of the International Whaling Commission. She currently has 23 publications in the field of brucellosis and during 2020 a new Brucella was discovered in his laboratory: *Brucella nosferati.* *Abstract* Marine brucellosis caused by Brucella ceti and B. pinnipedialis is a worldwide infectious disease. The marine Brucella species cluster in nine groups according to host-geographical localization infecting at least 61 marine mammal species including cetaceans, pinnipeds, mustelids, and polar bears. While initial diagnosis is carried out by detecting antibodies against Brucella antigens (mainly lipopolysaccharides), confirmation of the infection is performed by isolation of the bacterium or partially performed using molecular techniques. In contrast to pinnipeds and mustelids, which barely present symptoms, cetaceans with brucellosis show a wide range of pathologies and clinical presentation, including abortion, meningoencephalitis, osteomyelitis, orchitis, endocarditis, and placentitis, among several, paralleling the pathologies observed in humans infected with Brucella organism. The mortality, reproductive failure, and complications in the life span of the cetaceans infected with Brucella in natural populations are currently unknown, and laboratory capacity-building is required around the world to understand better this disease and its potential as a zoonotic agent.
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