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142 pages, The Working Group on Marine Mammal Ecology (WGMME), chaired by Anita Gilles (Germany) and Anders Galatius (Denmark), met at the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Re-search, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, in Büsum, Germany, during 11–14 February 2019. On behalf of the working group, the chairs would like to thank the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) for hosting the meeting. A total of 17 participants from eight countries attended the meeting on site. The list of partici-pants, including those contributing remotely, and contact details are given in Annex 1. The Chairs acknowledge the diligence and hard work of all the participants before, during and after the meeting, which ensured that the Terms of Reference could all be addressed. The Working Group gratefully acknowledges the support given by several additional experts that kindly pro-vided information and/or reports for use by WGMME and evaluated the threats matrices and related text (see Annex 1). Two terms of references were standing ToRs; under the first of these, ToR A, new and updated information on seal and cetacean population abundance, population/stock structure, manage-ment frameworks, and anthropogenic threats to individual health and population status were reviewed. Usually data on marine mammal surveys are only conducted during one season, but new data from Ireland revealed profound differences between summer and winter abundance and distribution of cetaceans, with implications for the spatial management of these species. New habitat modelling for cetacean species in the Northwest European Seas and North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean based on collated survey data as well as findings on threats to marine mammals such as bycatch, pollution, marine debris and noise were summarised under this ToR. Under ToR B, WGMME reviewed information on the ecological roles of marine mammals, ex-panding on efforts to review impacts on fisheries, interspecific competition, diet and impact on fish stocks from previous reports. The complexity and multitude of ecological interactions is un-derlined. A special emphasis under this ToR was put on the role of marine mammals as hosts and vectors of parasites., ToR C was implemented to review aspects of marine mammal fishery interactions not covered by ICES WGBYC. In 2019, WGMME focused its efforts on i) reviewing seal interactions with fisheries, including the numbers of bycaught seals, ii) investigating additional data sources for cetacean bycatch such as strandings, voluntary recording schemes and interview surveys, iii) identifying of potential bycatch risk areas, and iv) a review of recent work on setting safe limit thresholds for bycatch of marine mammals. To implement bycatch data in the management of marine mammals it is stressed that they should be aggregated on a management unit basis and corresponding data on abundance should be available. Under ToR D, WGMME followed up and updated on the 2015 threat matrix for the main marine mammal species in each of the regional sea areas. In addition to this update, a review of cumu-lative impacts from multiple environmental pressures and recent efforts to meaningfully analyse such cumulative impacts was produced. The approaches used to assess cumulative impacts are usually limited to a particular pressure. Efforts to expand the scopes of these tools are impeded by the complexity of the relevant interactions and knowledge gaps. ToR E, updating the database for seals, is the second standing term of reference. This year, WGMME adapted the ICES WGMME seal database to a proper database format and updated the data. WGMME also repeated its support for a data call from OSPAR to provide data for assessments under OSPAR indicators M3 and M5 on seal abundance and distribution, The WGMME updated ToRs for 2020 (see Annex 2) and discussed meeting venues. The Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC) offered to host the 2020 meeting in Barcelona (Spain) alongside the meeting of ICES WGBIODIV in order to arrange common sessions and establish cooperation between the two groups (see proposed ToR B for 2020)

Between the 8 th January and the 25 th February 2016, the largest sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus mortality event ever recorded in the North Sea occurred with 30 sperm whales stranding in five countries within six weeks. All sperm whales were immature males. Groups were stratified by size, with the smaller animals stranding in the Netherlands, and the largest in England. The majority (n = 27) of the stranded animals were necropsied and/ or sampled, allowing for an international and comprehensive investigation into this mortality event. The animals were in fair to good nutritional condition and, aside from the pathologies caused by stranding, did not exhibit significant evidence of disease or trauma. Infectious agents were found, including various parasite species, several bacterial and fungal pathogens and a novel alphaherpesvirus. In nine of the sperm whales a variety of marine litter was found. However, none of these findings were considered to have been the primary cause of the stranding event. Potential anthropogenic and environmental factors that may have caused the sperm whales to enter the North Sea were assessed. Once sperm whales enter the North Sea and head south, the water becomes progressively shallower (

An increasing number of harbour porpoises along the coastlines of northern Europe are victims of attacks by preying grey seals. To confirm grey seal attacks at a molecular level, a fast loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method was developed, based on the amplification of the cytochrome b target gene. With this method, saliva residues within bite marks, presumably originating from grey seal attacks, can be detected on-site, using a swab-based method in combination with a portable real-time fluorometer (Genie® II). The developed LAMP assay included an internal amplification control and was validated for the sensitivity, specificity, limit of detection and a spiking experiment was performed with saliva samples from two grey seals. Finally, three stranded harbour porpoises, with injury patterns presumably originating from grey seal attacks, were analysed. Grey seal DNA was successfully determined in a bite mark of one harbour porpoise with the LAMP method. For direct on-site molecular biological investigations without the opportunity to perform more time-consuming and equipment intensive PCR investigations, the developed rapid LAMP assay offers the possibility to confirm that injuries, probably caused by a grey seal, indeed resulted from a grey seal attack.

Anthropogenic landscape changes contributed to the reduction of availability of habitats to wild animals. Hence, the presence of wild terrestrial carnivores in urban and peri-urban sites has increased considerably over the years implying an increased risk of interspecies spillover of infectious diseases and the transmission of zoonoses. The present study provides a detailed characterisation of the health status of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), stone marten (Martes foina) and raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in their natural rural and peri-urban habitats in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany between November 2013 and January 2016 with focus on zoonoses and infectious diseases that are potentially threatening to other wildlife or domestic animal species. 79 red foxes, 17 stone martens and 10 raccoon dogs were collected from traps or hunts. In order to detect morphological changes and potential infectious diseases, necropsy and pathohistological work-up was performed. Additionally, in selected animals immunohistochemistry (influenza A virus, parvovirus, feline leukemia virus, Borna disease virus, tick-borne encephalitis, canine adenovirus, Neospora caninum, Toxoplasma gondii and Listeria monocytogenes), next-generation sequencing, polymerase chain reaction (fox circovirus) and serum-neutralisation analysis (canine distemper virus) were performed. Furthermore, all animals were screened for fox rabies virus (immunofluorescence), canine distemper virus (immunohistochemistry) and Aujeszky's disease (virus cultivation). The most important findings included encephalitis (n = 16) and pneumonia (n = 20). None of the investigations revealed a specific cause for the observed morphological alterations except for one animal with an elevated serum titer of 1:160 for canine distemper. Animals displayed macroscopically and/or histopathologically detectable infections with parasites, including Taenia sp., Toxocara sp. and Alaria alata. In summary, wildlife predators carry zoonotic parasitic disease and suffer from inflammatory diseases of yet unknown etiology, possibly bearing infectious potential for other animal species and humans. This study highlights the value of monitoring terrestrial wildlife following the "One Health" notion, to estimate the incidence and the possible spread of zoonotic pathogens and to avoid animal to animal spillover as well as transmission to humans.