The World - News from Aug. 30, 1988

Dutch and Swedish scientists said they have traced an epidemic that has killed an estimated 9,000 seals in the North and Baltic seas to a virus that causes distemper in dogs. Dutch immunologist Albert Osterhaus told a news conference in Pieterburen, Netherlands, that Dutch and Swedish scientists had developed an experimental vaccine and were inoculating some seals. Scientists sought the canine distemper virus in the seals at the suggestion of Swedish veterinary pathologist Anders Bergman, who told a Stockholm news conference, “It was clear the disease picture was exactly the same as in dogs.”