One dolphin in particular who was outwardly ill was able to be taken off medication during the treatment course, with his appetite and energy returning to normal, according to the team at the National Marine Mammal Foundation.

The project was carried out jointly between the NMMF, the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program and the Gilbert Lab at UCSD School of Medicine and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and its findings were published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology in a paper titled "Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of fecal microbiota transplantations in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) using metagenomic sequencing."

Bottlenose dolphins with evidence of gastrointestinal disease were treated with fecal microbiota transplantations, and the changes to their gut microbiome were analyzed using metagenomic sequencing, corresponding author Dr. Barb Linnehan said.

First of its kind

The paper is the first of its kind to describe the use of fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) in dolphins in peer-reviewed literature. Prior to this work, there were only a handful of anecdotal cases of FMT use in marine mammals and there were no standardized methods to safely screen donors, effectively administer, or monitor its efficacy.