Chytridiomycosis
The threat level for chytridimyosis is high causing a decline in 30% of amphibians.
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Chytridiomycosis is an infectious disease of amphibians, caused by the chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a non-hyphal zoosporic fungus.
Chytridiomycosis has been linked to dramatic population declines or even extinctions of amphibian species in western North America, Central America, South America, eastern Australia, and Dominica and Montserrat in the Caribbean.
The fungus is capable of causing sporadic deaths in some amphibian populations and 100% mortality in others.
There is no effective measure for control of the disease in wild populations.
The disease is contributing to a global decline in amphibian populations that apparently has affected 30% of the amphibian species of the world.
Chytridiomycosis is believed to adhere to the following course:
zoospores first encounter amphibian skin and quickly give rise to sporangia, which produce new zoospores.
The disease then progresses as these new zoospores reinfect the host.
Morphological changes of amphibians infected with the fungus include a reddening of the ventral skin, convulsions with extension of hind limbs, accumulations of sloughed skin over the body, sloughing of the superficial epidermis of the feet and other areas, slight roughening of the surface with minute skin tags, and occasional small ulcers or hemorrhage.
Behavioral changes can include lethargy, a failure to seek shelter, a failure to flee, a loss of righting reflex, and abnormal posture (e.g. sitting with the hind legs away from the body)
<---Back to Index
Chytridiomycosis is an infectious disease of amphibians, caused by the chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a non-hyphal zoosporic fungus.
Chytridiomycosis has been linked to dramatic population declines or even extinctions of amphibian species in western North America, Central America, South America, eastern Australia, and Dominica and Montserrat in the Caribbean.
The fungus is capable of causing sporadic deaths in some amphibian populations and 100% mortality in others.
There is no effective measure for control of the disease in wild populations.
The disease is contributing to a global decline in amphibian populations that apparently has affected 30% of the amphibian species of the world.
Chytridiomycosis is believed to adhere to the following course:
zoospores first encounter amphibian skin and quickly give rise to sporangia, which produce new zoospores.
The disease then progresses as these new zoospores reinfect the host.
Morphological changes of amphibians infected with the fungus include a reddening of the ventral skin, convulsions with extension of hind limbs, accumulations of sloughed skin over the body, sloughing of the superficial epidermis of the feet and other areas, slight roughening of the surface with minute skin tags, and occasional small ulcers or hemorrhage.
Behavioral changes can include lethargy, a failure to seek shelter, a failure to flee, a loss of righting reflex, and abnormal posture (e.g. sitting with the hind legs away from the body)
