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Some bacteria and associated diseases have been detected in marine mammals for several decades, while reports of others appear to be increasing, either due to a genuine increase in incidence or due to increased interest by investigators. The latter may be applicable to Brucella spp., the wide distribution of which suggests it has been present for a long time, yet was not identified in marine mammals until 1994. Thus, increased diagnostic efforts, including improved and new diagnostic techniques (e.g., targeted cultivation techniques, PCR and sequencing, phylogeny, etc.), as well as a search for association between presence of infectious agents and lesions, may reveal infections and disease conditions that hitherto were unrecognized. Bacterial characterizations using genomic sequencing and phylogenetic studies have improved speciation, and consequently, changes in affiliation and naming of organisms have …