WCS 3-Sentence Science

Sea Stars Get a Check-Up

June 21, 2019

Credit Julie Larsen Maher/WCS

Each year, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists publish more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and papers. “WCS 3-Sentence Science” is a regular tip-sheet — in bite sized helpings — of some of this published work.

Here we present work by the WCS Zoological Health Program’s Harley Newton on sea star wasting disease:

1. Sea star wasting disease has killed millions of seas starts along the Pacific coast since 2013, so there is a need for diagnostic tests to evaluate their health.
2. Researchers used a non-invasive technique that is used to access the body fluid of sea stars and tested it on 26 sea stars in aquaria.
3. The results provided a useful baseline and diagnostic tool for health assessments of sea stars.

Study and Journal: “Coelomic fluid evaluation in clinically normal ochre sea stars Pisaster ochraceus: Cell counts, cytology, and biochemistry reference intervals” from Journal of Aquatic Animal Health
WCS Co-Author(s): Harley Newton , WCS Zoological Health Program’s Aquatic Animal Medicine and Pathology Department

For more information, contact: Stephen Sautner, 718–220–3682, ssautner@wcs.org.