Dear MARMAM colleagues, We are excited to announce our new publication, "Novel Gammaherpesvirus Infections in Narrow-Ridged Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis) and False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) in the Republic of Korea," now available in Viruses. Lee SB, Lee KL, Kim SW, Jung WJ, Park DS, Lee S, Giri SS, Kim SG, Su JJ, Park JH, Hwang MH. Novel Gammaherpesvirus Infections in Narrow-Ridged Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis) and False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) in the Republic of Korea. Viruses. 2024;16(8):1234. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/v16081234 Abstract: A female narrow-ridged finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis) stranded on a beach on Jeju Island showed epithelial proliferative skin lesions on its body. Two false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens), caught using nets near Gangneung and Samcheok, respectively, had multiple plaques on their penile epidermis. Histological examination of the epidermis revealed that all the lesions had common features, including accentuated rete pegs, ballooning changes, and eosinophilic intranuclear inclusion (INI) bodies. Based on the histopathological results, herpesvirus infection was suspected, and thus further analysis was conducted using herpesvirus-specific primers. Based on nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests using the herpesvirus-detectable primers, the PCR products demonstrated two fragments: a 222-base-pair (bp) sequence of the DNA polymerase gene, SNUABM_CeHV01, showing 96.4% identity with a bottlenose dolphin herpesvirus from the Jeju narrow-ridged finless porpoise; and a 222 bp sequence of the DNA polymerase gene, SNUABM_CeHV02, showing 95.95% identity with the same bottlenose dolphin herpesvirus from the Gangneung and Samcheok false killer whales. The significance of this study lies in its ability to demonstrate the existence of novel cetacean herpesviruses in South Korean seawater, representing an important step forward in studying potentially harmful pathogens that affect endangered whale and dolphin populations. Thank you for your attention. Have a great day. Kind regards, Sung Bin Lee, D.V.M. Lab of Aquatic Biomedicine College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, KOREA 서울특별시 관악구 관악로 1, 서울대학교 수의과대학 81동 생명공학연구동 421호 수생생물의학실