Disease is one of the many factors that adversely affects the blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay, and Dr. Eric J. Schott's research is helping to find solutions to this problem. The protozoan Hematodinium is a single-celled parasite that infects the tissue of blue crabs, resulting in death. Dr. Schott is locating "hot spots" of Hematodinium in the Bay where blue crabs tend to have large die-offs. The presence of "hot-spots" implies that there are environmental reservoirs for the parasite. Dr. Schott has developed a DNA-targeted assay that allows for positive identification of Hematodinium in water, sediment and living hosts. Using this assay Dr. Schott and colleagues have already identified a sediment reservoir for the parasite, demonstrating that we now have a way to monitor the environmental reservoirs for the disease.

Dr. Schott has been working with a reo-like virus termed CsRV1, which is found in blue crabs from the Chesapeake Bay and other coastal bays ranging as far as the Gulf Coast. Working with Dr. Schott is Dr. Holly Bowers, who has developed a sensitive PCR assay for CsRV1, which amplifies the genetic material of the virus so that invisible infections can be detected, even in small amounts of crab blood. The PCR assay will help answer several pertinent questions: how prevalent is CsRV1 in wild blue crabs in all developmental stages? Is the virus passed vertically to offspring? What role does the virus have in natural mortality?

Dr. Schott's future plans involve the use of soft-shell crabs to find other possible diseases infecting blue crabs. New diseases often emerge in dense populations of animals, and Dr. Schott is interested in using the soft-shell industry as a research ground for pathogens of blue crabs. This research in an important step in restoring the losses to fisheries due to mortality among soft-shell and hard-shell crabs.