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Scheele’s team estimates that the fungus has caused the decline of 501 amphibian species—about 6.5 percent of the known total. Of these, 90 have been wiped out entirely. Another 124 have fallen by more than 90 percent, and their odds of recovery are slim. Never in recorded history has a single disease burned down so much of the tree of life.
Yep, it's bad. Horrible impacts worldwide due largely to human pregnancy testing and research and the exotic pet trade (not JUST import/export, but captive breeding facilities and domesticated frog farms too). Even if the exporter/importers were testing for it or isolating infected animals you'd still have consumers and pet shops flushing dead pets and their contaminated tank water into municipal water sources or burying them in the yard. There are many players you can lay blame on, not just one.
This treatment does work on individual animals, though it can leave them vulnerable to secondary bacterial infections for some time afterwards. Some species are resistant but are carriers. I participated in Steve Busch's (and the herpetologist who was actually doing the lab analysis) efforts to find anti-fungal treatment protocols for captive frogs. We both happened to be trying to establish captive breeding populations of the same species for many years. In fact I bought some of my female frogs from him. Individuals I had before chytrid had spread never got it. When they were exposed to more recent imports most of them ended up with it. And, this happened despite following standard amphibian quarantine protocols for other diseases. It was heartbreaking to watch...we adored our frogs.
The problem is dealing with the fungus in wild habitats or at least finding and protecting the surviving few individuals long enough to conserve the species. Once the fungus gets established in moist soils and water sources the populations will need time to develop resistance or adapt before they can be released.
Last edited by Parnassia; 03-28-2019 at 03:57 PM..
What about the spring peepers. Does this affect them as well?
Yes, a chytrid infection can kill them just as easily as another amphibian (except for a very few resistant species). An arboreal amphibian might not get exposed to the fungus as often as a terrestrial or aquatic one may, but if the fungus gets introduced to an environment that has never been exposed before, they won't have much if any resistance to it. They can pick it up from a water source or another infected frog. There are many arboreal frog species being lost worldwide. There are quite a few arboreal frog species bred in captivity (the iconic red-eyed tree frog is one example)...chytrid has decimated those populations too.
Last edited by Parnassia; 03-29-2019 at 02:53 PM..
Yes, a chytrid infection can kill them just as easily as another amphibian (except for a very few resistant species). An arboreal amphibian might not get exposed to the fungus as often as a terrestrial or aquatic one may, but if the fungus gets introduced to an environment that has never been exposed before, they won't have much if any resistance to it. They can pick it up from a water source or another infected frog. There are many arboreal frog species being lost worldwide.
another article. i guess Asian amphibians are resistant/immune?
Quote:
Rapid spread of disease is a hazard in our interconnected world. The chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis was identified in amphibian populations about 20 years ago and has caused death and species extinction at a global scale. Scheele et al. found that the fungus has caused declines in amphibian populations everywhere except at its origin in Asia (see the Perspective by Greenberg and Palen). A majority of species and populations are still experiencing decline, but there is evidence of limited recovery in some species. The analysis also suggests some conditions that predict resilience.
The chytridiomycosis panzootic represents the greatest recorded loss of biodiversity attributable to a disease.
The problem is dealing with the fungus in wild habitats or at least finding and protecting the surviving few individuals long enough to conserve the species. Once the fungus gets established in moist soils and water sources the populations will need time to develop resistance or adapt before they can be released.
Evolution involves a delicate, dynamic ballet between conflicting biological forces. The general rule in most infectious processes is that a very virulent bug will evolve to be less virulent (if it kills its host, it kills itself), while the hosts evolve to have more natural immunity in the population (only the more resistant live to pass on their genes).
The problem here is that the fungus naturally lives in the soil and doesn't need the amphibians to survive, so no pressure to lose virulence. It's now a race to see if enough frogs with more natural resistance can maintain the breeding population, or if it will fall below the critical survival number first.
Parnassia-- do you still have enough frogs that seem to have better resistance so you can exercise some animal husbandry/ selective breeding to increase that population? I wonder if GMO tech can be applied here?
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