First Record of Black Band Disease in the Hawaiian Archipelago: Response, Outbreak Status, Virulence, and a Method of Treatment

Abstract

A high number of coral colonies, Montipora spp., with progressive tissue loss were reported from the north shore of Kaua‘i by a member of the Eyes of the Reef volunteer reporting network. The disease has a distinct lesion (semi-circular pattern of tissue loss with an adjacent dark band) that was first observed in Hanalei Bay, Kaua‘i in 2004. The disease, initially termed Montipora banded tissue loss, appeared grossly similar to black band disease (BBD), which affects corals worldwide. Following the initial report, a rapid response was initiated as outlined in Hawai‘i’s rapid response contingency plan to determine outbreak status and investigate the disease. Our study identified the three dominant bacterial constituents indicative of BBD (filamentous cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, sulfide-oxidizing bacteria) in coral disease lesions from Kaua‘i, which provided the first evidence of BBD in the Hawaiian archipelago. A rapid survey at the alleged outbreak site found disease to affect 6-7% of the montiporids, which is higher than a prior prevalence of less than 1% measured on Kaua‘i in 2004, indicative of an epizootic. Tagged colonies with BBD had an average rate of tissue loss of 5.7 cm2/day over a two-month period. Treatment of diseased colonies with a double band of marine epoxy, mixed with chlorine powder, effectively reduced colony mortality. Within two months, treated colonies lost an average of 30% less tissue compared to untreated controls.

Shifting white pox aetiologies affecting Acropora palmata in the Florida Keys, 1994–2014

“…Florida Hawaii 1995* [13] 2012 [14] sulfide-oxidizing ba [15] 2000, 2001 [21] 2004 [22] 2005, 2006 [17] 2012 [14] Leptolyngbya sp. (a) Different signs, same pathogen…”

The cellular stress response of the scleractinian coral Goniopora columna during the progression of the black band disease

“…Its numerous occurrences throughout the Caribbean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Indo-Pacific indicate that this disease has a global distribution (Edmunds 1991;Littler and Littler 1996;Barneah et al 2007;Sato et al 2009;Weil et al 2012;Aeby et al 2015;Johan et al 2015). BBD affects more than 40 coral species belonging to many families (Sutherland et al 2004;Kaczmarsky 2006;Page and Willis 2006), although it preferentially infects large, massive, and slow growing scleractinian coral species (Frias-Lopez et al 2004;Richardson 2004;Weil 2004).…”

Occurrence of coral diseases at Akajima, Okinawa, Japan in 2010 and 2011

“…Barrier Reef (Sato et al 2009;Sato et al 2010;Glas et al 2010), Indonesia (Johan et al 2016), Hawaii (Aeby et al 2015), Palau (Sussman et al 2006) and Guam (Myers and Raymundo 2009). In the present survey, the prevalence (0-3.61%) of BBD on encrusting Montipora spp.…”

“…as a dominant disease was lower than that for Hawaii (6.0-7.6%) as documented by a study focusing on Montipora spp. and using similar approaches (Aeby et al 2015).…”