From Global News.

A team led by researchers in British Columbia has solved the mystery of a gruesome disease that has killed billions of sea stars along the Pacific coast of North America, more than a decade after the die off.

Melanie Prentice, the lead author of a new study, recalls a moment of "not really believing it" when researchers found a strain of bacteria that was abundant in diseased sea stars and absent in healthy ones.

"My initial reaction was like, ‘Okay, so I’ve done something wrong,’" she said.

Prentice said the team spent months trying to disprove their findings, ultimately confirming they had cracked the code of the disease.

They found the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida is a clear cause of sea star wasting disease.

As Global’s Julie Nolin reports, the breakthrough is a significant step forward in bringing populations back to the wild.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/11317860/sea-star-disease
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