2016 U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) reproductive health data

Blood parameter data from pregnant Navy dolphins were synthesized for a case-control study comparing successful versus failed pregnancy outcomes. The following table includes a limited set of blood parameter data collected between 1984-2016 from pregnant Navy dolphins that were selected as either a case or a control. Both cases and controls were limited to confirmed pregnancies with associated blood data and archived serum samples. A control (successful outcome) was defined as an apparently healthy pregnant common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) that carried a calf to full term, delivered the calf with no complications and the calf survived greater than 3 months. Health status was determined by the attending clinician’s evaluation of the animal’s clinical presentation, physical examination, and interpretation of blood work. Cases (failed outcomes) were those in which the dam was reported to have a pregnancy that resulted in a stillborn calf, a spontaneous abortion, or early fetal loss. Samples were also included for dams that gave birth to live calves if the calf lived fewer than 24 hours. For pregnancies that were not full-term, parturition start dates were determined using estimated age of fetus according to histopathology reports. Samples from both cases and controls were limited to blood dates in which there were at least 1 ml of archived serum. Serum samples were selected from failed pregnancies in which there were also histopathology results and archived tissue samples for the expired calf/fetus.