>I wonder if this organism can thrive in clean water or if it requires
>certain chemicals to grow and reproduce?
>
>Anyone know anything about the biochemistry of the neurotoxin?
Pfiesteria thrives in nutrient-rich waters, according to Howard Lyman*. He
says pfiesteria arose in North Carolina, the number 2 state in hog
production due in part to lax environmental enforcement. Hog farm run-off
has caused fecal coliform counts to exceed state standards by a factor of
thirty thousand.
Fish kills there were first attributed to low levels of oxygen by state
employees, intent on preserving the tourist industry. But when the fish
kills reached the millions, and the fish had the open bleeding sores
characteristic of pfiesteria, other causes were sought.
One researcher, Dr. JoAnn Burkholder
<http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/project/aquatic_botany/pfiest.html >
from the University of North Carolina, has become an expert on pfiersteria;
her research indicated the likely causes were urban sewage and factory
farming, with its concentrated runoffs of pesticides, nitrogen and
phosphorus in fertilizers, and animal waste. Other outbreaks of pfiersteria
along the Chesapeake Bay have been linked to commercial chicken factory
farms.
*this information taken from *Mad Cowboy*, pp 129-131. Another book on
this issue is *And The Waters Turned To Blood* by Rodney Barker.
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".