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A common antibiotic slows a mysterious coral disease

Amoxicillin is 95 percent effective at healing infected tissues on stony coral colonies

divers testing coral disease treatments

Divers testing treatments for deadly stony coral tissue loss disease apply chlorinated epoxy to great star corals (Montastraea cavernosa) off the coast of Florida.

E.N. Shilling, I.R. Combs and J.D. Voss/Scientific Reports 2021

By Cassie Martin

Slathering corals in a common antibiotic seems to temporarily soothe a mysterious tissue-eating disease, new research suggests.

Just off Florida, a type of coral infected with stony coral tissue loss disease, or SCTLD, showed widespread improvement several months after being treated with amoxicillin, researchers report April 21 in Scientific Reports.