Latest Chytridiomycosis Stories

Scientists have unraveled the dynamics of a deadly disease that is wiping out amphibian populations across the globe. New findings, published May 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that infection intensity -- the severity of the disease among individuals -- determines whether frog populations will survive or succumb to an amphibian fungal disease called Chytridiomycosis. The research identifies a dangerous tipping point in infection intensity, beyond which...

Midwife toads that live in the mountains are highly likely to die from a serious fungal infection, called chytridiomycosis, whereas their infected relatives in the lowlands are not, according to new research published Jan. 24 in Ecology Letters.The authors of the study, from Imperial College London, the Zoological Society of London and the BiodivERsA project RACE, say their findings suggest conservationists may be able to limit the impact of the disease in the mountains by ensuring tourists...

Most countries throughout the world participate in the $40-million-per-year culinary trade of frog legs in some way, with 75 percent of frog legs consumed in France, Belgium and the United States. Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and colleagues have found that this trade is a potential carrier of pathogens deadly to amphibians. The team's findings are published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ecology, Thursday, Nov. 19.Amphibians are rapidly declining worldwide. More than...

A workshop at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama has dramatically improved the ability of conservationists and regulatory agencies to monitor the spread of chytridiomycosis"”one of the deadliest frog diseases on Earth.Caused by the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, this disease is probably responsible for the extinction of nearly 100 frog species since the 1970s. During the past decade, the epidemic swept from the highlands of Costa Rica through western...

The world's leading amphibian experts have come together and for the first time identified two major conservation initiatives to protect the amphibians of the world from becoming extinct.The new coalition of organizations, the Amphibian Survival Alliance, will work together on scientific research and fund-raising to focus on containing the spread of the amphibian chytrid fungus and protecting the only amphibian habitats that contain amphibians that are not found anywhere else in the...

A fatal fungus that has killed hundreds of different kinds of frogs in the US is now harming five different frog species in the Philippines, experts announced on Wednesday.A nationwide survey conducted by US and Filipino scientists discovered that the Philippines is the third country in Asia to be affected by the chytrid fungus.The fungus, which targets the skin of frogs and distresses the arrangement of tadpoles' body parts, is also in Japan and Indonesia.The Luzon striped frog, one of the...

Scientists are rescuing dozens of one of the world's most rarest species of amphibians, the mountain chicken frog. The frogs are being airlifted to safety from Montserrat in a final attempt to save it from the deadly chytrid fungus, which is ravaging their shrinking habitat and threatening extinction worldwide. Montserrat is a tiny British Caribbean territory that is one of only two sites where the once-prevalent mountain chicken is found, but hundreds of the frogs have been killed in just...

A U.S. study suggests amphibians might be able to develop immunity to the fatal fungus disease that is reducing the Earth's amphibian populations. Jonathan Richmond of the U.S. Geological Survey and colleagues said they discovered individual amphibians can develop both acquired and innate immunity to the fungal disease chytridiomycosis, which is caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. The researchers said scientists should broaden their studies of chytridiomycosis to include...

New evidence suggests that both acquired and innate immunity play a role in fighting off the fungal disease that is leading to dramatic declines in amphibian populations worldwideAmphibian populations are declining worldwide, principally because of the spread of the fungal disease chytridiomycosis. Researchers know that some amphibian populations and species are innately more susceptible to the disease than others. Recent preliminary evidence, described in the April issue of BioScience,...

Devastating declines of amphibian species around the world are a sign of a biodiversity disaster larger than just frogs, salamanders and their ilk, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley.In an article published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers argue that substantial die-offs of amphibians and other plant and animal species add up to a new mass extinction facing the planet."There's no question...