29th Conference of the European Cetacean Society

From the 21^st to the 25^th of March 2015, the 29^th Conference of the European Cetacean Society was held in the St. Georges Bay of Malta. The Conference was organized by the NGO The Biological Conservation Research Foundation and supported by ASCOBANS, CMS, ACCOBAMS and the University of Malta.

Important academics and researchers coming from all over the world (biologists, naturalists, and veterinarians) took part in the Conference. They presented the results of research carried out in different sectors and the worthwhile proposals for the protection of the marine biodiversity. The Conference was preceded by two workshop days: one of those focused on necropsy and sampling techniques and was moderated by Doctor Sandro Mazzariol, co-ordinator of the Cetaceans’ Strandings Emergency Response (CSER) of the University of Padua.

There were numerous scientific contributions: lectures (4), oral presentations (67), two poster sessions (143) and video presentations (8). One of the videos was made by the Centro Studi Cetacei and showed the safety assistance provided to the sperm whales, who had stranded on the 12^th of September 2014 in Punta Aderci, Vasto(CH).

Doctors Gabriella Di Francesco and Andrea Di Provvido of participated in the event on behalf of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise. Together with the colleagues of the diagnostic unit of the Laboratory for Animal Health, co-ordinated by Doctor Nicola Ferri and Massimo Scacchia in collaboration with Professor Giovanni Di Guardo of the University of Teramo and the National Reference Centre for the diagnostic investigation on stranded marine mammals, Doctors Di Franceso and Di Provvido are in charge of supporting the activities when stranding of cetacean occur.

During the Conference the poster “Pleuropneumonia associated with a Mycoplasma-like agent in a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) stranded along the coast of Abruzzo, Italy” realized by Di Francesco G., Cammà C., Curini V., Mazzariol S., Proietto U., Ferri N., Di Provvido A., Di Guardo G. was presented.