From http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2000/2000L-03-14-09.html Mike Miller
NEW PFIESTERIA SPECIES FOUND
WILMINGTON, North Carolina, March 14, 2000 (ENS) - Scientists at North
Carolina State University (NCSU) have confirmed the existence of a second
species of Pfiesteria, a toxic microbe linked to fish kills - and, in some
cases, to human health problems - along the mid-Atlantic coast. Researchers
from NCSU’s Aquatic Botany Laboratory presented their new findings on
Saturday at the Southeastern Estuarine Research Society (SEERS) conference
in Wilmington. Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, NCSU professor of aquatic botany and
marine sciences, says Pfiesteria shumwayae is the second species identified
from "the toxic Pfiesteria complex," a group of closely related
dinoflagellate marine organisms believed responsible for killing millions
of fish from the Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.
Scientists first detected P. shumwayae, which they suspected to be a new
species, during a 1995 fish kill in North Carolina’s New River estuary,
following a major spill of effluent from a hog waste lagoon. Two years of
testing by Burkholder and associate Howard Glasgow Jr.’s lab, as well as by
an independent lab for corroboration, confirmed that the organism is toxic.
Researchers have discovered other Pfiesteria "lookalike" organisms, but P.
shumwayae is the first organism of its type, besides the original P.
piscicida, to be found harmful to fish. "As our knowledge of these
organisms grows and improved techniques become available to detect them,
we’ll probably identify a dozen separate species," said Burkholder, the
world’s leading Pfiesteria expert. "We’re still just knocking on the door
with this discovery."
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