Brucella ceti is a gram negative bacterial pathogen of the Brucellaceae family that causes brucellosis in cetaceans.

[1] Brucellosis in some dolphins and porpoises can result in serious clinical signs including fetal abortions, male infertility, neurobrucellosis, cardiopathies, bone and skin lesions, stranding events, and death.

[2] Only a small portion of those with Brucella ceti have overt clinical signs of brucellosis indicating that many have the bacteria and remain asymptomatic or overcome the pathogen.

[7] Other symptoms in dolphins from both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans include subcutaneous abscesses, endometritis, meningoencephalitis and discospondylitis.

[9] Post mortem pathology studies on cetaceans also find inflammatory lesions, nodules of granulation tissues and necrosis in the heart, lungs and reproductive organs.

In addition to this, it is common to find non lethal lesions in the bones and joints, which indicates a chronic presence of B. ceti in cetacean populations.

[2] The first case of B. ceti infecting the reproductive organs was recorded in a California aquarium, where bottlenose dolphins experienced abortions.