WHITE POX CORAL DISEASE - USA: (FLORIDA)
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Date: 17 Aug 2011
Source: NPR.org [edited]
<http://www.npr.org/2011/08/17/139705482/caribbean-coral-catch-disease-from-sewage>
Caribbean Coral Catch Disease From Sewage
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Human beings occasionally get diseases, such as swine flu, rabies and anthrax, from animals. A new study finds that humans can also spread disease to wildlife, with grim results. A bacterium from our guts is now rampaging through coral reefs in the Caribbean.
Those reefs were already in slow decline, but they took a huge hit starting in 1996, when a disease called white pox appeared in the Florida Keys. "Since that time, elkhorn coral -- the species it affects -- has declined 88 percent in the Florida Keys," says Kathryn Sutherland, a reef ecologist at Rollins College in Florida. "And we've seen similar declines elsewhere in the Caribbean."
The coral is named for its resemblance to elk antlers, and is among the most important reef-building species in the Caribbean. Sutherland and her colleagues soon found a culprit for the die-off -- a bacterium called _Serratia marcescens_. It also happens to cause disease in human beings, notably hospital infections. But the scientists couldn't prove cause and effect.
In the past 15 years, almost 90 percent of elkhorn populations in the Florida Keys have died, landing this once-common coral on the endangered species list. "In 2002, we could only speculate that human waste was the source of the pathogen because the pathogen is also found in the guts of other animals," such as deer, Sutherland says.
So she and some colleagues exposed the coral in the laboratory to bacteria extracted from sewage. As they report in the journal PLoS ONE, the coral got the pox within days.
"That gave us definitive evidence that white pox disease is caused by a pathogen found in human sewage."
An 'Evolutionary Triple Jump'
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Traditionally, we think of diseases moving from animals to us, but "this is almost a man-bites-dog story," says James Porter at the University of Georgia, a co-author of the study.
"This is a very rare and unusual evolutionary triple jump," Porter says. The bacterium "went from humans to the lower invertebrates -- coral. It went from the terrestrial environment to the marine environment. And then it went from the anaerobic [low oxygen] conditions of our stomach to the fully oxygenated conditions on the reef."
Porter says they are still trying to explain exactly how the bacterium makes coral sick, and why white pox appeared so suddenly and viciously. The good news is those answers aren't needed to protect coral. You can just keep the germ away. And, happily, that's been happening along the Florida Keys. Jay Gewin, utilities manager in the city of Key West, says residents there voted to upgrade their leaky sewer system. It was not done to save coral per se, but to get rid of health warnings that were keeping the tourists away.
World's Coral Reefs Facing Serious Threats
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Overfishing, local pollution and other human activities are putting the ecosystems at risk. "In the early 2000s when this was such a problem, every single beach in the city of Key West would have an advisory," Gewin says. Those health warnings on the beach are now rare, thanks to a sophisticated new wastewater system that cost the city more than USD 70 million.
"The wastewater is treated to the highest level in the state of Florida, and then it goes into a deep injection well, where the treated final water product is sent thousands of feet down into the ground," Gewin says. Eventually it may seep back up into the ocean, but he says by then it's clean. The biologists say that since the new system was installed, there haven't been any further die-offs of elkhorn coral around Key West. Other towns along the Keys are now in the process of cleaning up their act, too.
"But this is a problem Caribbean-wide," Sutherland says, "and there's a widespread lack of wastewater treatment in the wider Caribbean region." And that's bad news for the elkhorn coral. Due largely to the disease spreading from humans, it's been tagged as vulnerable on the endangered species list.
[Byline: Richard Harris]
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Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
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[This seems to be further confirmation of the the ProMED-mail post 20101024.3861. It may also be an extension of the coral problem. It has been identified in the past in parts of the USA, and in the Caribbean and attributed to various other causes. All of these causes may play a role in this disease.
Coral is an essential part of the ocean ecosystem. This is a serious issue and finding a way, as mentioned in this article to prevent it is critical. - Mod.TG]
[The interactive HealthMap/ProMED map for Florida is available at:
<http://healthmap.org/r/00uk> - CopyEd.EJP]
[see also:
2010
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Coral reef disease, link to human Serratia strains 20101024.3861 Coral reef bleaching - Caribbean: temperature related 20101020.3796 Montipora white syndrome, coral reef - USA (02): (HI) 20100415.1220 Montipora white syndrome, coral reef - USA: (HI) 20100403.1078
2007
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Vibrio, rare coral - UK 20070905.2933
Coral reef kill - Costa Rica 20070904.2915 Coral reef kill - Pacific Region 20070810.2600
2004
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Coral reef kills - USA (FL) (02) 20040327.0846 Coral reef kills - USA (FL) 20040320.0777
2002
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Coral reef kills, unknown etiology - Australia 20021023.5624 Coral reef kills, human waste suspected - Caribbean 20020627.4622 2000
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Coral reef kills - Belize 20000510.0713
1999
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Coral reef kills & potential human disease (02) 19990204.0161 Coral reef kills & potential human disease 19990124.0111
1998
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Coral reef bleaching & El Nino - Indian Ocean (02) 19981113.2187 Coral reef bleaching, El Nino effects - Indian Ocean 19980705.1246 Coral reef kills, etiology determined - USA 19980415.0693
1996
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White pox, coral reefs - Florida, USA (02) 19961231.2165 White Pox, coral reefs - Florida, USA 19961228.2160] .................................................sb/tg/mpp/ejp/mpp/ll
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