Note to Self

There is a serious lack of available literature on diseases of Orcinus orca.  Most of it is on Tursiops which is great because they make a great model species, but come on, lets get a little more specific.  

In the future, I want to do research on the diseases in wild Killer Whale populations, I think we might find some interesting trends (any information would be interesting at this point).  Also, I want to do research on husbandry methods and disease pathology of captive killer whales, because the last major study on that was done back in the 70s where whales were still being taken from the wild and acquired all sorts of ailments due to poor husbandry methods coupled with a severe lack of knowledge of the species (yay for more arguments regarding the ethics of acquiring knowledge at the expense of animal welfare...).  I want to see what has been happening now, to see if any improvements have been made in the management of these animals, or what diseases have emerged or disappeared....ANYTHING!!

I'm going to have a lot of work cut out for me....on the brightside, I'm going to have a lot of ideas for research papers if I do want to get board certified in zoological medicine. 

http://www.aczm.org/content.aspx?page_id=1&club_id=366916&item_id=2609

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