Cold snap saves seals threatened by virus

A deadly virus which infected colonies of seals around the coast of Britain may have been eradicated by the recent cold weather.

Phocine distemper virus, which was blamed for killing thousands of seals off England last year, was threatening to devastate colonies of common and grey seals north of the border. But experts at the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University announced yesterday that the worst was over.

The virus, for which there is no known prevention or cure, killed about one third of the seal population off the east coast of England around The Wash and throughout northern Europe. Scotland is home to 80 per cent of the UK's seal population of about 150,000. Professor Ailsa Hall, from the research unit, said: "Distemper is definitely over now in England. In Scotland it could certainly be dying out."

Graeme Smith, manager of the Scottish Sealife Sanctuary in Oban, said: "The virus is not tolerant to cold weather and we are very hopeful we can soon release several pups which were abandoned by their mothers and kept at the centre to avoid the risk of contact with the virus."