Though principally a human disease, there are signs cetaceans can suffer a similar condition <\/p>
Alzheimer\u2019s is a form of age-related dementia that affects about 35 million people worldwide and is characterised by a build-up of amyloid plaques \u2013 sticky clusters of proteins that disrupt biological processes \u2013 in the brain.<\/p>\n
The disease is specifically human, but similar conditions have been identified among wild animals, including whales and dolphins, which are long-lived, like ourselves. There is evidence that declines in cognitive function and navigational abilities associated with amyloid plaques can contribute to cetacean strandings.<\/p>\n
Some scientists think that the plaques form in response to poisoning by algal blooms<\/a><\/strong> at sea, which are known to be increasing in frequency.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Though principally a human disease, there are signs cetaceans can suffer a similar condition <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25145,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/do-animals-get-alzheimers.jpg",1600,1067,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/do-animals-get-alzheimers-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/do-animals-get-alzheimers-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/do-animals-get-alzheimers-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/do-animals-get-alzheimers-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/do-animals-get-alzheimers-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/do-animals-get-alzheimers.jpg",1600,1067,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Though principally a human disease, there are signs cetaceans can suffer a similar condition","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/25144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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