DURHAM, N.H. — The University of New Hampshire is partnering with the Seacoast Science Center to help determine what is causing the deaths of seals and other marine mammals found along the northern New England seacoast.

The university’s Veterinary Diagnostic Lab traditionally has focused on agricultural animals, but has expanded to include wildlife species over the last decade. Officials say the new partnership with the science center’s Marine Mammal Rescue operation will ensure quick and accurate diagnoses when the New England Aquarium’s facility in Massachusetts is at capacity.

Inga Sidor, the lab’s senior pathologist, says the work supports the idea that human, animal and ecosystem health are interdependent and furthers the university’s work in monitoring health and disease in Gulf of Maine marine mammals.