In August 2023, a young great white shark was discovered dead on Prince Edward Island, marking the first such finding in Canada. A thorough necropsy revealed the cause of death to be meningoencephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. This alarming discovery prompted further investigations, leading to the finding of four more white sharks with similar issues. With nine incidents of shark deaths noted since July 2022, experts are racing to uncover the underlying cause of this potentially infectious disease affecting brain tissues in these sharks.
Starvation was ruled out from the very first incision, when the shark's 76-pound liver, where the animal stores fat, spilled onto the examination table.
At first Dr. Jones found the diagnosis more interesting than alarming. Then came the other sharks.
We need to know more about what that is. Those five white sharks are among nine known deaths dating from a shark found on July 4, 2022.
Such inflammation has been seen in other shark species, but the cause in those cases... was obvious, unlike in white sharks.
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