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김병엽 교수팀, 남방돌고래 등 폐사원인 부검으로 밝힌다

Professor Kim Byung-yeop and his team examine an Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin carcass to determine the cause of death

Autopsy training was conducted to analyze the cause of death of marine mammals found dead in the sea area around Jeju. Jeju National University and Seoul National University will conduct this training on the Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphins and the Narrow-ridged finless porpoises, which are Jeju's main target of interest. The study occurred at the Jeju headquarters of the Korea Fisheries Resources Service from the 18th to 22nd of July.

The training will be conducted twice this year, including this time.

The Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin is the only species with more than 120 living in the waters around Jeju in Korea. An average of about 10 dead dolphins have been found every year over the past six years.

The other mammal studied via autopsy is the Narrow-ridged finless porpoises. It has been thought that these porpoises mainly inhabit the southwest sea of Korea and not the Jeju sea.

However, according to a recent study by the Whale and Marine Life Conservation Research Center at JNU, carcasses have been continuously discovered over the past three years, indicating that the mammal is, in fact, inhabiting the seas of Jeju.

Professor Kim Byung-yeop's team at JNU will examine a total of 20 dead marine mammals (3 Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphins, 1 common dolphin, and 16 narrow-ridged finless porpoises) in the training this year. Through this, the overall cause of death of marine mammals will be identified by analyzing the direct cause of death, as well as the indirect cause of death considering ecological aspects such as health, disease condition, and movement path.

The autopsy training will be conducted by introducing the non-invasive autopsy technique (virtopsy), which is being conducted jointly with the team of Professor Park Se-chang of Seoul National University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, for the first time. The 'virtopsy' technique is a non-invasive visual autopsy method that utilizes imaging data such as CT (computed tomography) for the autopsy. This method can further increase the autopsy efficiency by identifying; whether the dead body had lesions before the autopsy takes place.

Participants were recruited from eight veterinary colleges throughout Korea. A total of 26 applicants and researchers were selected from the various institutions.

Professor Kim Byung-yeop of JNU, who is in charge of this educational recruitment said, "Through this training, we will contribute to fostering future marine mammal ecology experts by providing students and researchers with an opportunity to acquire specialized knowledge in marine mammal autopsies."