title: Complementary approaches to diagnosing marine diseases: a union of the modern and the classic.
abstract: Linking marine epizootics to a specific aetiology is notoriously difficult. Recent diagnostic successes show that marine disease diagnosis requires both modern, cutting-edge technology (e.g. metagenomics, quantitative real-time PCR) and more classic methods (e.g. transect surveys, histopathology and cell culture). Here, we discuss how this combination of traditional and modern approaches is necessary for rapid and accurate identification of marine diseases, and emphasize how sole reliance on any one technology or technique may lead disease investigations astray. We present diagnostic approaches at different scales, from the macro (environment, community, population and organismal scales) to the micro (tissue, organ, cell and genomic scales). We use disease case studies from a broad range of taxa to illustrate diagnostic successes from combining traditional and modern diagnostic methods. Finally, we recognize the need for increased capacity of centralized databases, networks, data repositories and contingency plans for diagnosis and management of marine disease.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 701 E Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21202, USA colleenb@umbc.edu.
authors.forename: Colleen A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Burge
authors.affiliation: School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Box 355020, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Carolyn S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, C4-177 Vet Med Center, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, 930 Campus Road, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Rodman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Getchell
authors.affiliation: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, 6730 Martin Way East, Olympia, WA 98516, USA.
authors.forename: Marcia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: House
authors.affiliation: US Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, c/o Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin D
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7583-4593
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Lafferty
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Texas Arlington, 501 South Nedderman, Arlington, TX 76019, USA.
authors.forename: Laura D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Mydlarz
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Prager
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL 32789, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn P
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8192-1500
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Sutherland
authors.affiliation: Ifremer, Département Ressources Biologiques et Environnement, rue de l'Ile d'Yeu, 44311 Nantes Cedex 03, France.
authors.forename: Tristan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Renault
authors.affiliation: National Research Institute of Aquaculture, Fisheries Research Agency, Mie 516-0193, Japan.
authors.forename: Ikunari
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kiryu
authors.affiliation: Oregon State University, 454 Nash Hall, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vega-Thurber
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D059001:Aquatic Organisms; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods
keywords: aetiology; diagnostics; marine disease; marine epizootics