Scientists have long wondered the cause of the mysterious disappearance of sea stars or starfish along the Pacific coast of North America. A new study claims to have found the answer - a virus could have triggered an outbreak of sea star wasting syndrome.
Sea star wasting syndrome is a disease observed on both starfish in the wild and those held in captivity. The disease causes these creatures to develop lesions all over their skin, and can bring on unnatural twisting of their arms. Some even lose limbs due to excessive tissue softening, according to UC Santa Cruz.
Several studies were initiated in an attempt to determine the cause of the disease. One of these studies was conducted by researchers from Cornell University, UC Santa Cruz and other institutions. Researchers focused their investigation on the densovirus, a parvovirus that often kills insects at their larval stages.
Researchers looked at some specimens of sea stars, including those that date as far back as 1942, and found traces of the virus. They also collected water samples from areas where massive deaths of sea stars were observed and found a presence of the virus.
"The fact that it has occurred historically indicates that while this virus may be the agent that causes the disease, something may have happened recently that caused it to go rogue, because we've never seen anything like the current outbreak," study co-author Peter Raimondi said in a release.
The discovery of the virus and its association with the sea star wasting syndrome is significant as it will help scientists focus on the resolution now.
Scientists were uncertain if the sea stars can still recover from the disease. It also puzzled them that the sea urchins and brittle stars were also infected with the virus but managed to survive, indicating that these species might have developed some form of immunity.
Further details of the study were published in the Nov. 17 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
