Anthropogenic activities can lead to several devastating effects on the environment. The pollutants, which include the discharge of effluents, runoffs in the form of different lethal and sub-lethal concentrations of pesticides, heavy metals, and other contaminants, can harm exposed fauna and flora. The aquatic environment is the ultimate destination for many pollutants which negatively affect aquatic biodiversity and even can cause a species to become extinct. A pollutant can directly affect the behavior of an animal, disrupt cellular systems, and impair the immune system. This harm can be reduced and even mitigated by adopting proper approaches for the conservation of the target biota. Among aquatic organisms, cetaceans, such as the Yangtze finless porpoise, Irrawaddy dolphin, Ganges River dolphin, Amazon River dolphin, and Indus River dolphin, are at a higher risk of extinction because of lack of knowledge and research, and thus insufficient information with respect to their conservation status, management, and policies. Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of mass mortalities of cetaceans. This article reviews the limited research reported on stress and pneumonia induced by pollution, stress-induced pneumonia and immunosuppression, pneumonia-caused mass mortalities of aquatic mammals, and vaccination in wildlife with a specific focus on aquatic mammals, the role of genomics in vaccine development and vaccination, and the major challenges in vaccine development for biodiversity conservation.
Keywords: Cetaceans; genomics; mortalities; pneumonia; pollution; stress; vaccination.