Field and laboratory studies conducted over the past 20 years have revealed the main
But until recently, the toxin that causedthe disease, vacuolar myelinopathy, was unknown. Now, after years spent identifying a new toxic blue-green species of algae (cyanobacteria) and isolating the toxic compound, scientists have confirmed the structure of this toxin.
Cyanobacteria grow on the leaves of an invasiveaquatic plant Hydrilla verticillata under certain conditions: in artificial lakes when bromide is present. Bacteria and animal deaths from the disease they cause have been reported in watersheds in the southeastern United States. This is why it is important for anyone outdoors, anglers, hunters, bird watchers and more, to be aware of the signs of this neurological infection and to avoid eating infected animals.
Scientists want people to recognize thisdisease before taking birds or fish from these lakes. In some animals - such as birds, turtles, salamanders and even beavers - the disease manifests itself in the form of erratic movements or seizures. However, anglers should be even more careful as it is impossible to detect a toxin in fish without obvious symptoms.
“I wouldn’t eat fish that were damaged.or any deformities; Scientists and researchers see affected fish swimming slowly, but fishermen will not be able to see this. "We want people to be aware of the lakes where this disease has been reported and to exercise caution when consuming birds and fish from them."
Susan Wild, assistant professor of aquatic sciences in the Varnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
Researchers studying cyanobacteria have compiledmaps and list of affected watersheds. Now scientists have mapped the genome of bacteria to understand how they develop and survive. Scientists have been studying cyanobacteria since 2001, when bald eagles began to die in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. In the following decades, the cyanobacteria themselves were discovered, called Aetokthonos hydrillicola (Latin for the killer eagle that grows on the hydrill), and links were established between invasive aquatic plants and the animals that eat them. But until recently, the origin of this brain-damaging disease remained a mystery.
Hydrilla samples collected in the field were then cultured in the laboratory and tested. But the tests were negative: the cyanobacteria from the laboratory did not cause the disease.
The scientists then used a new mass spectrometerfor imaging to examine the composition on the leaf surface of a plant, molecule by molecule. They discovered a new substance that is found only on leaves that grow cyanobacteria, but is not produced in cyanobacterial cultures. His research into the chemical structure of an isolated molecule revealed five bromine atoms.
“These properties are unusual for a molecule,formed by cyanobacteria, and they explain why the toxin was not formed in laboratory conditions where there is no bromide. We then added bromide to our lab cultures and the cyanobacteria began producing the toxin.”
Steffen Breinlinger, one of the researchers.
After nearly a decade of testingisolated molecule and collaboration between laboratories, it turned out that this molecule actually causes vacuolar myelinopathy. The researchers call their discovery etoctonotoxin, "eagle-killing poison."
The neurological disease has not yet appeared inEurope, and no cases of toxin-forming cyanobacteria have been reported. It is not yet known that humans suffer from vacuolar myelinopathy, although researchers have successfully treated chickens with the toxin, and scientists now continue to test fish and waterfowl such as ducks and coots for the disease.
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