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A virus similar to measles in humans is the likely killer of hundreds of East Coast dolphins, officials said Tuesday.

The tentative cause is morbillivirus, which caused a similar die-off in 1987-88, the officials said.

We are now calling this a morbillivirus outbreak, said Teri Rowles, a marine mammal expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The dolphin virus does not pose a threat to people, experts said in a telephone news conference.

The outbreak, originally stretching from New York to Virginia, has spread to North Carolina and could reach Florida as some infected animals make their normal fall migrations to the south, the experts said.

Since July 357 bottlenose dolphins have turned up dead or dying more than nine times the normal number for that period in that New York-to-North Carolina region.

Virginia has been hit hardest with 186 deaths, possibly because the state has a large dolphin population in summer. Virginia normally has about a dozen dolphin deaths in the two months.

Weve been seeing all age classes in both males and females among the dead, said Margaret Lynott, stranding-response manager for the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach.

The nonprofit aquarium is home to Virginias sole program for responding to the stranded dolphins.

Its possible the outbreak is the result of dolphin populations that harbor the virus and a degree of resistance coming into contact with populations with little resistance, experts said.

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Virus is main suspect in dolphin deaths