News Ecosystems

Fish Epidemic Traces to Novel Germ

By Janet Raloff

- More than 2 years ago

Most angst over emerging diseases has focused on infections that suddenly strike people, the way AIDS appeared to have done in the early 1980s. However, a new study indicates that wildlife too are susceptible to new plagues.

A healthy striped bass, hauled out of the Chesapeake Bay (above), and a sick one (below) with nodules, which appear as round, grayish spots on internal organs.