Dead seals on Cape Town beaches raise fears about widening rabies outbreak

CNN — Dead seals are washing up along beaches in South Africa’s port city of Cape Town, a coastal management official told CNN Friday, amid an outbreak of rabies in the marine animals.

“We believe this to be the first spread of rabies within a marine mammal population and that is concerning for us,” said Cape Town’s coastal manager Gregg Oelofse.

Rabies in seals is rare and the only known case of the viral disease in a seal was detected in the Svalbard islands of Norway in 1980.

Cape Town, home to dozens of beaches and a coastline extending over 300 kilometers (186 miles), harbors thousands of Cape fur seals, a seal species native to southern Africa.

The city has recorded “11 positive rabies cases in seals so far,” with the last positive case detected in a seal tested 10 days ago, according to Oelofse. He urged calm however, saying it is normal to find carcasses of Cape fur seals along the shoreline. While “lots” of dead seals have washed ashore this week, many of them have died naturally, he said.

He added that laboratory investigations were ongoing to determine how the seals were infected with the disease.