Type II White-Band Disease
Ritchie KB and Smith GW. 1998. Type II White-Band Disease. Revista De Biologia Tropical. 46(5):199-203
Epizootics of type II white-band disease (WBD II) can be confused with type I white-band disease (WBD I) and with bleaching. The only well documented cases of WBD II have been on Acropora cervicornis from the Bahamas, but descriptive reports indicate that it may be widespread. WBD II begins as a bleaching margin which precedes a necrotic margin. The bleaching margin usually progresses at a faster rate than the necrotic margin and can arrest, allowing the necrotic margin to catch up. In this case, the disease has the appearance of WBD I. Living polyps are found in the bleaches zone although recovery has not been observed. A. bacterium, similar to Vibrio charcharia is always isolated from the surface mucopolysaccharide layers (SML) of the bleached zone, but not from the SML of unbleached areas.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Ritchie, K.; Smith, G.
- Units
- SFCN
- Keywords
- Acropora cervicornis, Bacteria, Bleaching, Coral Disease, Necrotic Margin