News Animals

Probiotics helped great star corals fend off a deadly disease

A bacterium-based paste halted progression of stony coral tissue loss disease

an image of a scuba diver injecting a white liquid in a bag over a coral

Kelly Pitts, a research technician with the Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft. Pierce, Fla., treats great star coral (Montastraea cavernosa) colonies infected with stony coral tissue loss disease. The treatment is a probiotic strain McH1-7 applied by covering the coral colony in a plastic bag, injecting the probiotic bacteria solution into the bag and leaving the bag for two hours to allow for the bacteria to colonize on the coral.

Hunter Noren

By Martin J. Kernan

Great star corals in the grip of disease have been saved with probiotics — beneficial bacteria that attack or displace invading pathogens or possibly trigger immune responses to them.