Arabs Starfish died in a decade long epidemic. Scientists say that they now know why.

Scientists say they have last solved the secret of killing more than 5 billion sea stars-often known as Starfish-away from the Pacific coast of North America in a long epidemic of a decade.

Starting in 2013, a mysterious maritime star lust A large scale died from Mexico to Alaska. The epidemic has destroyed more than 20 species and continues today. The worst hit was a species called Sunflower sea starWhich lost about 90% of its population in the first five years of outbreak.

“This is actually quite severe,” Economist Alyssa Wheatman of sea disease said at the Hakai Institute in British Columbia, Canada, which helped indicate the cause.

In healthy marine stars “Pafi weapons are clinging directly,” he said. But the waste disease causes them to grow wounds and “then their arms really fall.”

Criminal? Bacteria that also infects shellfish, according to A Study Published on Monday in Nature Ecology and Evolution Journal.

Conclusion “Solves a long -standing question about a very serious illness in the sea,” Rebecca Vega Tharber said, a maritime microbiologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not included in the study.

Sea stars typically have five weapons and some species are up to 24 weapons. They range from solid orange to orange, purple, brown and green tapestry.

Symptoms of “C Star wasting syndrome include unusually twisted weapons, white wounds, arms and body defamation, hand loss, and body disruptions,” National Park Service says“They die during days or weeks.”

Researchers took more than a decade to identify the cause of the disease, with many false leads and twists and turning in the way.

Preliminary research indicated that the cause may be a virus, but it was densovirus that the scientists had initially focused, in fact healthy marine stars were a common resident inside and was not associated with the disease, the new study co-writer of the new study said that the Melani Princess of the co-writer Haqai Institute said.

Other attempts recalled the real killer as researchers studied tissue samples of dead sea stars that no longer included physical fluids surrounding organs.

But the latest study involves a detailed analysis of this fluid, called the coalomic fluid, where bacteria Vibrio pectanisida were found.

“It is incredibly difficult to detect the source of many environmental diseases, especially under water,” the Northern Carolina University microbiologist Black Ushijima said, Wilmington, who was not involved in research. He said that espionage work by this team was “really smart and important.”

Now that scientists know the reason for this, they have a better shot in interfering to help sea stars. International Union has listed sunflower marine stars for the conservation of the International Union Severely distressed,

Prantis stated that scientists can now potentially test which of the remaining maritime stars are still healthy – and consider whether to move them, or later they have to breed in captivity to transplant them in areas that have lost almost all sunflower marine stars.

Scientists can also test whether some population has natural immunity, and if treatment such as probiotics can help promote immunity.

Researchers say that such recovery work is not only important for marine stars, but also for the entire Pacific ecosystems because healthy starfish increases excess marine archens.

Sunflower sea stars “look innocent when you see them, but they eat almost everything that lives on the ocean floor,” the wheat said. “They are terrible eaters.”

With many low marine stars, marine archens that they usually explode in population – and in turn arise over 95% of the Kelp Forest in Northern California within a decade. These kelp forests provide food and habitat for various types of animals, including forest fish, sea udilavas and seals.

Researchers hope that the new conclusions will allow them to restore the marine star population – and the Kelp will repeat the forests again that compare the thorbar “rainforests of the ocean”.