in Coastal Indo-Pacific

Cetacean morbillivirus (CeMV) has caused several epizootics in multiple species of cetaceans globally and is an emerging disease among cetaceans in Australia. We detected CeMV in 2 stranded coastal Indo-Pacific bottle-nose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in Western Australia. Preliminary phylogenetic data suggest that this virus variant is divergent from known strains. Cetacean morbillivirus (CeMV; family Paramyxoviri-dae) has caused several epizootics globally during the past 25 years. Three strains of CeMV—porpoise, dolphin, and pilot whale morbillivirus—are classified as 1 species (1). CeMV is more closely related to ruminant morbillivi-ruses and human measles virus than to canine and phocine distemper viruses (1,2). Recently, a morbillivirus with phylogenetic similar-ity to dolphin morbillivirus (DMV) caused the death o