Two items best known for cleaning pools and moisturizing dry skin could help protect Earth’s corals and reduce antibiotic resistance and ocean pollution. A paste made from chlorine and cocoa butter could be a future treatment for Atlantic corals affected by stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). For experimental results, The study was published Nov. 14 in the journal frontier PhD in Marine Science.
What is stony coral tissue loss disease?
Coral reefs around the world are facing major challenges from ocean warming, habitat degradation, pollution and disease. SCTLD is highly lethal A coral disease first discovered in 2014. According to NOAAIt affects more than 20 coral species and is present on coral reefs in 18 countries and territories. This usually manifests as lesions on the coral that continue to destroy soft tissue. SCTLD is particularly serious because it is transmitted very quickly, spreads to many hosts, and has a high mortality rate. usually kills coral within weeks or months of infection.
[Related: Caribbean coral is getting sick and dying. A probiotic could help.]
Antibiotics such as amoxicillin This is the most common treatment used by marine biologists to stop the spread of SCTLD. However, just like in humans, this comes with side effects such as increased antibiotic resistance.
“Antibiotic contamination is a problem around the world, so we are working to develop non-antibiotic treatments to slow the progression of tissue loss diseases,” said study co-author Greta, a marine biologist at Qatar University.・Ebby said. stated in a statement.
Comparison of amoxicillin and chlorine
in new researchA team of researchers applied different SCTLD treatments to infected corals at Horseshoe Reef near the British Virgin Islands and compared their effectiveness. Some groups were treated with amoxicillin. Others were treated with a paste mixed with chlorine and cocoa butter.
“The active ingredient in this mixture is sodium hypochlorite, a commonly used disinfectant to kill bacteria and viruses,” Abey said. “The chlorine powder we used for treatment is the same one used to kill bacteria in swimming pools. The cocoa butter was simply a delivery mechanism to get the chlorine to the coral lesions.”
They applied both types of treatments directly to the corals and inspected the reefs every four to five weeks. On these visits, they Measured and described lesions and reapplied treatment as needed. rear Approximately 80 daysthe median percentage of tissue lost was 17.6 percent in chlorinated coral colonies and 1.7 percent in amoxicillin-treated coral colonies.
A better bet for the ocean
Conventional antibiotic treatment has been successful in reducing the spread of SCTLD, but is associated with undesirable side effects. They can lead to an increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and using things like chlorination can help minimize that risk.
“All organisms in the same environment (crabs, fish, even humans) are at increased risk of encountering bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics,” Abey says.
Furthermore, treatment with antibiotics have a big impact on the environment. They can be toxic to other microorganisms, leading to further resistance and making it difficult to treat bacterial diseases. The chlorine and cocoa butter paste is easily biodegradable, and the chlorine’s potency wears off naturally within 24 hours. The manufacturing costs are also significantly lower, as the materials are available at hardware stores and pharmacies.
“Antibiotic pastes are not only cumbersome to manufacture, but also often too expensive for conservationists working with minimal resources on Caribbean islands,” said study co-author and author of the study. said Argel Houghton, a marine biologist with the ministry. climate change in the British Virgin Islands; stated in a statement.
A clean sea fights disease
However, not all corals in the study responded to treatment in the same way. and Over 6,000 known coral speciesthere are a large number of corals from different environments that could not be included in this study. The researchers hope that future studies will be able to test the effectiveness of different treatment methods on other corals.
[Related: World’s largest known deep-sea coral reef is bigger than Vermont.]
Although disease treatments are effective, they cannot eliminate disease from coral populations, just as treating a cold alone cannot eliminate disease prevalent in humans. More direct processing can reduce pathogen loads in the environment, but manually processing coral colonies individually, as the research team did, is not feasible in the long term or at large scale. there is no.
“The best strategy is to improve environmental conditions to give corals a better chance of fighting the disease themselves,” Abey said. “This includes removing water pollution and rebalancing ecosystems.”
