Common Human Antibiotic Can Heal Coral Diseases â 95% Success Rate With Amoxicillin
Apr 24, 2021
Diseases continue to be a major threat to coral reef health, but a new study by Florida researchers reveals how a common antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections in humans is showing great promise.
Joshua Voss PhD âFAU Harbor Branch, Coral Reef and Health Ecology Lab
A recent outbreak of an infectious disease called stony coral tissue loss has affected 20 different stony coral species. First discovered in 2014 in Miami-Dade County, the disease has spread throughout Florida’s Coral Reef and into parts of the Caribbean.
In treating disease-affected Montastraea cavernosa coral colonies (the Great Star Coral widely found in the Atlantic), the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute of Florida Atlantic University found that an amoxicillin treatment had a 95 percent success rate at healing individual disease lesions.
Diseases continue to be a major threat to coral reef health. For example, a relatively recent outbreak termed stony coral tissue loss disease is an apparently infectious waterborne disease known to affect at least 20 stony coral species. First discovered in 2014 in Miami-Dade County, the disease has since spread throughout the majority of the Florida s Coral Reef and into multiple countries and territories in the Caribbean. Some reefs of the northern section of Florida s Coral Reef are experiencing as much as a 60 percent loss of living coral tissue area.
A new study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute reveals how a common antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections in humans is showing promise in treating disease-affected Montastraea cavernosa coral colonies in situ. M. cavernosa, also known as the Great Star Coral, is a hard or stony coral found widely throughout the tropical western Atlantic, including several regions currently
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VIDEO: FAU scientific divers Erin Shilling and Ryan Eckert are shown applying the antibiotic treatment (the white paste) into trenches created around disease lesions present at the edges of the coral. view more
Credit: Joshua Voss, Ph.D., FAU Harbor Branch, Coral Reef and Health Ecology Lab
Diseases continue to be a major threat to coral reef health. For example, a relatively recent outbreak termed stony coral tissue loss disease is an apparently infectious waterborne disease known to affect at least 20 stony coral species. First discovered in 2014 in Miami-Dade County, the disease has since spread throughout the majority of the Florida s Coral Reef and into multiple countries and territories in the Caribbean. Some reefs of the northern section of Florida s Coral Reef are experiencing as much as a 60 percent loss of living coral tissue area.
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