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Coral reefs are in severe decline. Infections by the human pathogen  Serratia marcescens  have contributed to precipitous losses in the common Caribbean elkhorn coral,  Acropora palmata , culminating in its listing under the United States Endangered Species Act. During a 2003 outbreak of this coral disease, called acroporid serratiosis (APS), a unique strain of the pathogen,  Serratia marcescens  strain PDR60, was identified from diseased  A. palmata , human wastewater, the non-host coral  Siderastrea siderea  and the corallivorous snail  Coralliophila abbreviata . In order to examine humans as a source and other marine invertebrates as vectors and/or reservoirs of the APS pathogen, challenge experiments were conducted with  A. palmata  maintained in closed aquaria to determine infectivity of strain PDR60 from reef and wastewater sources. Strain PDR60 from wastewater and diseased  A. palmata  caused disease signs in elkhorn coral in as little as four and five days, respectively, demonstrating that wastewater is a definitive source of APS and identifying human strain PDR60 as a coral pathogen through fulfillment of Koch's postulates.  A. palmata  inoculated with strain PDR60 from  C. abbreviata  showed limited virulence, with one of three inoculated fragments developing APS signs within 13 days. Strain PDR60 from non-host coral  S. siderea  showed a delayed pathogenic effect, with disease signs developing within an average of 20 days. These results suggest that  C. abbreviata  and non-host corals may function as reservoirs or vectors of the APS pathogen. Our results provide the first example of a marine “reverse zoonosis” involving the transmission of a human pathogen ( S. marcescens ) to a marine invertebrate ( A. palmata ). These findings underscore the interaction between public health practices and environmental health indices such as coral reef survival.

Human Pathogen Shown to Cause Disease in the Threatened Eklhorn Coral Acropora palmata