Researchers have identified the cause of the wasting disease that has killed billions of sea stars from Mexico to Alaska since 2013: a strain of the Vibrio pectenicida bacteria.
Researchers have identified the cause of the wasting disease that has killed billions of sea stars from Mexico to Alaska since 2013: a strain of the Vibrio pectenicida bacteria.
The strain, named FHCF-3, is detailed in a new paper published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution by scientists from UBC, the Hakai Institute and the University of Washington.
“Wasting disease is considered the largest ever marine epidemic in the wild, but the definitive cause has remained elusive – until now. Now that we’ve identified the disease-causing agent, we can start looking at how to mitigate the impacts of this epidemic,” said first author Dr. Melanie Prentice (she/her), a research associate at UBC’s department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences (EOAS) and the Hakai Institute.
Read more at: University of British Columbia
Wasting sunflower sea star off Calvert Island. (Photo Credit: Grant Callegari/Hakai Insitute)
