And they kept it, like, in some preservative or something, to study it? I'm trying to understand the timeline here Edit: OK I read the article but im wondering why we're hearing about it now rather than 2 years ago?

[–] OpenStars@discuss.online 3 points 6 months ago

"engagement" aka profits?

[–] Paraponera_clavata@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm guessing, but it's probably because they are testing for bird flu on a long-dead dolphin via necropsy?

[–] JetpackJackson@feddit.de 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Im just confused why it would take so long, does it normally take that long to examine/run tests and stuff?

[–] Paraponera_clavata@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Dolphin died March 2022, then the publisher received the manuscript in June 2023. Then review took until 10 April 2024.

More generally, they weren't doing this in response to the recent outbreak, it was sort of a coincidence that the disease gained media attention at the same time of this paper's publication. Academic researchers are expected to publish around 2 papers a year, and each paper tends to take a couple years.

tl;dr: it's an academic study, not the dolphin CDC. blame the publishers and universities, not the researchers.

[–] JetpackJackson@feddit.de 1 points 6 months ago

Ah OK that makes more sense! Thank you for the clarification!

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 months ago

That was about the time we started hearing about bird flu infecting seals, wasn't it? Seems like marine mammals were the bridge species, and then it went from them to cows.

The next jump might be ferrets or mink (I remember from COVID that they have very similar respiratory systems to humans). Or it might just jump over them right to morons drinking raw milk I guess.