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Not another Pandemic! The first records of sea star wasting disease in European Waters
  • Samuel Smith,
  • Ian Hewson,
  • Patrick Collins
Samuel Smith
Queen's University Belfast

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Ian Hewson
Cornell University
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Patrick Collins
Queen's University Belfast School of Biological Sciences
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Abstract

Sea Star Wasting Disease (SSWD) refers to a suite of clinical signs observed in Asteroidea species, presents to varying degrees as abnormal posture, epidermal ulceration, arm autotomy, and eversion of viscera. We present observations of SSWD in the sunstar Crossaster papposus, the first observations of its kind in European waters. With rapid environmental flux as a proposed trigger for this condition, increasing frequency of temperature fluxes may lead to increasing prevalence of SSWD, and have wide reaching ecological and management implications.