White Pox Disease

The elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, has been a major reef-building coral in the Caribbean for the last 220,000 years. However, since the ... all » early 1970's, the dominance of this species within the reef system has declined dramatically (McClanahan & Muthiga, 1998). The decline of A. palmata can be attributed to two diseases: White Band and White Pox Disease. The following footage shows a patch of A. palmata covered with large lesions characteristic of White Pox (Patterson, et al., 2002). It has been demonstrated that this disease is caused by Serratia marcescens, a bacterial Mini-Documentaries Short Movies Home Cniderian Aggression Living In Groups Reef Dynamics Reproduction Sharks and Rays Shifting Baselines Stressed Corals Symbioses Threats To Reefs Visual Biology and Mimicry The elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, has been a major reef-building coral in the Caribbean for the last 220,000 years. However, since the early 1970’s, the dominance of this species within the reef system has declined dramatically (McClanahan & Muthiga, 1998). The decline of A. palmata can be attributed to two diseases: White Band and White Pox Disease. The following footage shows a patch of A. palmata covered with large lesions characteristic of White Pox (Patterson, et al., 2002). It has been demonstrated that this disease is caused by Serratia marcescens, a bacterial pathogen associated with human sewage (Patterson et al. 2002). Credits Cinematography: Neilan Kuntz Edited by: Neilan Kuntz Written by: Dr. Olga Pantos Location: Bocas del Toro, Panama (2003) McClanahan, T.R. and N.A. Muthiga (1998) Ecological shift in a remote coral atoll of Belize over 25 years. Environmental Conservation 25(2): 122-130. Patterson, K., J. Porter, et al. (2002) The etiology of white pox, a lethal disease of the Caribbean elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata. Proceeding of the National Academy of Science 99 (13): 8725-8730.