Wilde, B. N. H. S. B., & Chamberlain, M. J. 2020. Vacuolar myelinopathy: waterbird risk on a southeastern impoundment co-infested with Hydrilla verticillata and Aetokthonos hydrillicola. Biological Invasions.

Study Highlights:

Invasive aquatic plants such as hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) supports a novel epiphytic cyanobacterium (Aetokthonos hydrillicola) which is implicated in vacuolar myelinopathy (VM) disease.

Ingestion of aquatic plants with A. hydrillicola causes often fatal neurological impairment to waterbirds and is transferred from herbivore to predator.

We investigated potential VM risk to wildlife species using hydrilla infested sites at a southeastern reservoir and developed a qualitative risk assessment for waterbird species that inhabited the reservoir during fall and early winter.