Veterinarians from the University of Florida say that dolphins may be an ideal model to study human cervical cancer.

"We discovered that dolphins get multiple infections of papillomaviruses, which are known to be linked with cervical cancer in women," said marine biologist Hendrik Nollens in a news release. "Dolphins are the only species besides humans that we know of that can harbor coinfections, or infections of multiple papillomavirus types, in the genital mucosa."

There are approximately 100 types of human papillomaviruses.

Nollens also said that there is evidence that some infections can go from the sea to the land, which could even mean that a high-risk infection such as SARS or the West Nile virus could come from marine animals.

However, Nollens said that there is no evidence that dolphins get cervical cancer from papillomaviruses.

"Why do people develop the disease, but dolphins don't? If we can figure out why, the human medical community might be very interested in how that information might be applied to human strategies for preventing the disease," he said.