Association of prokaryotes with symptomatic appearance of withering syndrome in black abalone Haliotis cracherodii.

Withering syndrome (WS) is an epizootic fatal wasting disease that is devastating California Channel Island populations of black abalone Haliotis cracherodii. Our studies suggest a strong pathogen-disease association. The pathogen is an intracellular prokaryote that infects epithelial cells lining the gut and enzyme secreting cells of the digestive diverticula. It multiplies by binary fission in round to oval, basophilic, membrane-bound colonies teeming in the cytoplasm. Infection of the digestive diverticula is accompanied by a complete loss of digestive enzyme granules and metaplasia of enzyme secretory cells to a morphology similar to epithelium lining the gut. Extensive infection of digestive diverticular cells and the resultant deficiency in digestive enzymes correlates to the degree of pedal muscle atrophy and the severity of signs associated with WS. Electron microscopically the intracellular pathogen is a rod-shaped, ribosome-rich, gram-negative, prokaryote with a trilaminar cell wall consistent with the order Rickettsiales. Microbiological and protozoological methods produced no patterns that implicated other types of microbes. Chemical analysis of tissue from animals from a population with WS did not support an association between WS and environmental pollutant exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, or chlorinated pesticides.