Seal finger, also known as sealer's finger and spekk-finger (from the Norwegian for "blubber"),[2] is an infection that afflicts the fingers of seal hunters and other people who handle seals, as a result of bites or contact with exposed seal bones[citation needed]; it has also been contracted by exposure to untreated seal pelts.[citation needed] The State of Alaska Section of Epidemiology defines it as "a finger infection associated with bites, cuts, or scratches contaminated by the mouths, blood, or blubber of certain marine mammals".[2]