Virus behind mass starfish die-off
WASHINGTON: Scientists investigating a huge die-off of starfish along North America’s Pacific coast have identified a virus they say is responsible for a wasting disease that has wiped out millions of the creatures since it first appeared last year.
The scientists said this week they had identified the pathogen as the sea star associated densovirus, or SSaDV, after ruling out other possible culprits, including certain bacteria, protozoans and fungi.
More than 20 species of starfish, also called sea stars, from southern Alaska to Baja California are dying from a wasting disease that causes lesions to appear before the animal’s body sags, ruptures and spills out its internal organs. “They fall apart into a pile of goo on the bottom of the sea floor,” said Cornell University oceanographer and microbial ecologist Ian Hewson, who led the study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
SSaDV is a parvovirus, a tiny form of virus that can cause illness in animals and people.
The researchers detected it in older starfish samples and museum specimens from as early as 1942.
They said it might have been present at low levels for years and only recently become a large-scale threat because of some kind of viral mutation, environmental trigger, starfish overpopulation or other factor.