Densovirus Associated with Sea-star Wasting Disease and Mass Mortality

Ian Hewson, Jason Button, Brent Gudenkauf, Benjamin Miner, Alisa Newton, Mya Breitbart, Elizabeth Fahsbender, Kevin Lafferty

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

<p> <p id="x-x-p-5"> Sea stars inhabiting the Northeast Pacific Coast have recently experienced an extensive outbreak of wasting disease, leading to their degradation and disappearance from many coastal areas. In this paper, we present evidence that the cause of the disease is transmissible from disease-affected animals to apparently healthy individuals, that the disease-causing agent is a virus-sized microorganism, and that the best candidate viral taxon, the sea star-associated densovirus (SSaDV), is in greater abundance in diseased than in healthy sea stars. </p></p>
Original languageAmerican English
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA
Volume111
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2014

Keywords

  • virus
  • Asteroidea
  • disease
  • densovirus
  • wasting

Disciplines

  • Life Sciences

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