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      Antifungal treatment of wild amphibian populations caused a transient reduction in the prevalence of the fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis

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          Abstract

          Emerging infectious diseases can drive host populations to extinction and are a major driver of biodiversity loss. Controlling diseases and mitigating their impacts is therefore a priority for conservation science and practice. Chytridiomycosis is a devastating disease of amphibians that is caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ( Bd), and for which there is an urgent need to develop mitigation methods. We treated tadpoles of the common midwife toad ( Alytes obstetricans) with antifungal agents using a capture-treat-release approach in the field. Antifungal treatment during the spring reduced the prevalence of Bd in the cohort of tadpoles that had overwintered and reduced transmission of Bd from this cohort to the uninfected young-of-the-year cohort. Unfortunately, the mitigation was only transient, and the antifungal treatment was unable to prevent the rapid spread of Bd through the young-of-the year cohort. During the winter, Bd prevalence reached 100% in both the control and treated ponds. In the following spring, no effects of treatment were detectable anymore. We conclude that the sporadic application of antifungal agents in the present study was not sufficient for the long-term and large-scale control of Bd in this amphibian system.

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          Chytridiomycosis causes amphibian mortality associated with population declines in the rain forests of Australia and Central America.

          Epidermal changes caused by a chytridiomycete fungus (Chytridiomycota; Chytridiales) were found in sick and dead adult anurans collected from montane rain forests in Queensland (Australia) and Panama during mass mortality events associated with significant population declines. We also have found this new disease associated with morbidity and mortality in wild and captive anurans from additional locations in Australia and Central America. This is the first report of parasitism of a vertebrate by a member of the phylum Chytridiomycota. Experimental data support the conclusion that cutaneous chytridiomycosis is a fatal disease of anurans, and we hypothesize that it is the proximate cause of these recent amphibian declines.
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            Spread of Chytridiomycosis Has Caused the Rapid Global Decline and Extinction of Frogs

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              Global emergence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and amphibian chytridiomycosis in space, time, and host.

              Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is a chytrid fungus that causes chytridiomycosis in amphibians. Only named in 1999, Bd is a proximate driver of declines in global amphibian biodiversity. The pathogen infects over 350 species of amphibians and is found on all continents except Antarctica. However, the processes that have led to the global distribution of Bd and the occurrence of chytridiomycosis remain unclear. This review explores the molecular, epidemiological, and ecological evidence that Bd evolved from an endemic ancestral lineage to achieve global prominence via anthropogenically mediated spread. We then consider the major host and pathogen factors that have led to the occurrence of chytridiomycosis in amphibian species, populations, and communities.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                benedikt.schmidt@ieu.uzh.ch
                Journal
                Sci Rep
                Sci Rep
                Scientific Reports
                Nature Publishing Group UK (London )
                2045-2322
                20 July 2017
                20 July 2017
                2017
                : 7
                : 5956
                Affiliations
                [1 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1937 0650, GRID grid.7400.3, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, , University of Zurich, ; Zurich, Switzerland
                [2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2297 7718, GRID grid.10711.36, Laboratory of Ecology and Evolution of Parasites, Institute of Biology, , University of Neuchâtel, ; Neuchâtel, Switzerland
                [3 ]KARCH, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9384-0436
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4023-1001
                Article
                5798
                10.1038/s41598-017-05798-9
                5519715
                28729557
                7c1bae63-f13f-410f-a92a-d9bd141236fb
                © The Author(s) 2017

                Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 21 February 2017
                : 6 June 2017
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