Amphibian apocalypse is even worse than scientists realized
Even species like this arboreal bromeliad tree frog have been found infected with chytrid. By Jason Bittel March 28 at 2:55 PM There is a plague ripping through the amphibian species of the world. It’s caused by fungus that’s invisible to the naked eye and spreads easily by many means. It kills by disrupting the way these creatures breathe through their skin, essentially suffocating frogs and salamanders.
“It’s a staggering thing to consider,” said Jonathan Kolby, one of the study’s authors and a herpetologist specializing in conservation and wildlife diseases at James Cook University in Australia. “We’ve never before had a single disease that had the power to make multiple species extinct, on multiple continents, all at the same time.”
The scope of the chytrid fungus’s onslaught on the amphibian world is unprecedented. West Nile virus, now a relatively well-known pathogen, affects just 23 bird species. The fungus laying waste to bat populations across North America, white nose syndrome, is attacking half a dozen species. “There’s nothing preventing hybridization from happening again, and if it happens again, who knows what that hybrid offspring will act like,” said Kolby. “We could have another global wave of disease, which could be similar, different or even worse than the one we’re facing now.”In 2013, scientists discovered a species of chytrid that goes after salamanders, called Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans. Fortunately, this species has not yet made its way into the United States. In 2016, the U.S.
“What concerns me is there’s going to be a next time. By not using this as a learning experience about what happens when we aren’t being careful, it almost undoubtedly ensures that the wildlife trade is moving other pathogens right now, be it for mammals, birds, fish. You name it,” he said.
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