ABSTRACT
Parasitic infection is a common problem in most species of wild mammals, but parasitism appears to be a much greater problem in marine mammals than in most terrestrial species. This chapter describes and discusses the more common, significant, and interesting lesions of parasites in sea mammals. It uses the common dolphin, sea lion, harbor seal, and elephant seal as examples of the host reactions to parasites where possible, and classifies the parasites by locations in or on their hosts and to subgroup them by family. An unidentified ciliate has been seen in a skin lesion of a single bottle-nose dolphin from Florida. Lice are found on pinnipeds as well as on small and large cetaceans. Cestodiasis is an interesting entity in small odontocete cetaceans. Adult cestodes in the intestinal tract of porpoises are less commonly seen than infection with larval phyllobothrid cysts.
