32. Do crown-of-thorns starfish suffer from diseases?

Captive crown-of-thorns starfish have been observed to suffer from an infectious disease which may bring about their death. Investigations showed that its spread could be halted using antibiotics although starfish in advanced stages of the disease (eg. ulcerations, matted spines, and disintegration of the body wall) still frequently died. More recently, evidence of this disease was obtained from a population of juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish on a reef in Fiji.

The infection was responsible in part for causing the mortality of about 99% of the population over several months. This is the first and currently only evidence of a disease causing the demise of a population of crown-of-thorns starfish. No similar data are available for outbreaks of adult starfish (see 15). Scientists are presently trying to isolate the organism responsible for causing this disease in the hope that it could be effective in controlling outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish in the future (see 38).

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