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Reservoir frogs: seasonality of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in robber frogs in Dominica and Montserrat

Emerging infectious diseases are an increasingly important threat to wildlife conservation, with amphibian chytridiomycosis, caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, the disease most commonly associated with species declines and extinctions. However, some amphibians can be infected with B. dendroba...

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Autores principales: Hudson, Michael A., Griffiths, Richard A., Martin, Lloyd, Fenton, Calvin, Adams, Sarah-Louise, Blackman, Alex, Sulton, Machel, Perkins, Matthew W., Lopez, Javier, Garcia, Gerardo, Tapley, Benjamin, Young, Richard P., Cunningham, Andrew A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6573808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31231595
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7021
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author Hudson, Michael A.
Griffiths, Richard A.
Martin, Lloyd
Fenton, Calvin
Adams, Sarah-Louise
Blackman, Alex
Sulton, Machel
Perkins, Matthew W.
Lopez, Javier
Garcia, Gerardo
Tapley, Benjamin
Young, Richard P.
Cunningham, Andrew A.
author_facet Hudson, Michael A.
Griffiths, Richard A.
Martin, Lloyd
Fenton, Calvin
Adams, Sarah-Louise
Blackman, Alex
Sulton, Machel
Perkins, Matthew W.
Lopez, Javier
Garcia, Gerardo
Tapley, Benjamin
Young, Richard P.
Cunningham, Andrew A.
author_sort Hudson, Michael A.
collection PubMed
description Emerging infectious diseases are an increasingly important threat to wildlife conservation, with amphibian chytridiomycosis, caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, the disease most commonly associated with species declines and extinctions. However, some amphibians can be infected with B. dendrobatidis in the absence of disease and can act as reservoirs of the pathogen. We surveyed robber frogs (Eleutherodactylus spp.), potential B. dendrobatidis reservoir species, at three sites on Montserrat, 2011–2013, and on Dominica in 2014, to identify seasonal patterns in B. dendrobatidis infection prevalence and load (B. dendrobatidis genomic equivalents). On Montserrat there was significant seasonality in B. dendrobatidis prevalence and B. dendrobatidis load, both of which were correlated with temperature but not rainfall. B. dendrobatidis prevalence reached 35% in the cooler, drier months but was repeatedly undetectable during the warmer, wetter months. Also, B. dendrobatidis prevalence significantly decreased from 53.2% when the pathogen emerged on Montserrat in 2009 to a maximum 34.8% by 2011, after which it remained stable. On Dominica, where B. dendrobatidis emerged seven years prior to Montserrat, the same seasonal pattern was recorded but at lower prevalence, possibly indicating long-term decline. Understanding the dynamics of disease threats such as chytridiomycosis is key to planning conservation measures. For example, reintroductions of chytridiomycosis-threatened species could be timed to coincide with periods of low B. dendrobatidis infection risk, increasing potential for reintroduction success.
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spelling pubmed-65738082019-06-21 Reservoir frogs: seasonality of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in robber frogs in Dominica and Montserrat Hudson, Michael A. Griffiths, Richard A. Martin, Lloyd Fenton, Calvin Adams, Sarah-Louise Blackman, Alex Sulton, Machel Perkins, Matthew W. Lopez, Javier Garcia, Gerardo Tapley, Benjamin Young, Richard P. Cunningham, Andrew A. PeerJ Conservation Biology Emerging infectious diseases are an increasingly important threat to wildlife conservation, with amphibian chytridiomycosis, caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, the disease most commonly associated with species declines and extinctions. However, some amphibians can be infected with B. dendrobatidis in the absence of disease and can act as reservoirs of the pathogen. We surveyed robber frogs (Eleutherodactylus spp.), potential B. dendrobatidis reservoir species, at three sites on Montserrat, 2011–2013, and on Dominica in 2014, to identify seasonal patterns in B. dendrobatidis infection prevalence and load (B. dendrobatidis genomic equivalents). On Montserrat there was significant seasonality in B. dendrobatidis prevalence and B. dendrobatidis load, both of which were correlated with temperature but not rainfall. B. dendrobatidis prevalence reached 35% in the cooler, drier months but was repeatedly undetectable during the warmer, wetter months. Also, B. dendrobatidis prevalence significantly decreased from 53.2% when the pathogen emerged on Montserrat in 2009 to a maximum 34.8% by 2011, after which it remained stable. On Dominica, where B. dendrobatidis emerged seven years prior to Montserrat, the same seasonal pattern was recorded but at lower prevalence, possibly indicating long-term decline. Understanding the dynamics of disease threats such as chytridiomycosis is key to planning conservation measures. For example, reintroductions of chytridiomycosis-threatened species could be timed to coincide with periods of low B. dendrobatidis infection risk, increasing potential for reintroduction success. PeerJ Inc. 2019-06-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6573808/ /pubmed/31231595 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7021 Text en © 2019 Hudson et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Conservation Biology
Hudson, Michael A.
Griffiths, Richard A.
Martin, Lloyd
Fenton, Calvin
Adams, Sarah-Louise
Blackman, Alex
Sulton, Machel
Perkins, Matthew W.
Lopez, Javier
Garcia, Gerardo
Tapley, Benjamin
Young, Richard P.
Cunningham, Andrew A.
Reservoir frogs: seasonality of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in robber frogs in Dominica and Montserrat
title Reservoir frogs: seasonality of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in robber frogs in Dominica and Montserrat
title_full Reservoir frogs: seasonality of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in robber frogs in Dominica and Montserrat
title_fullStr Reservoir frogs: seasonality of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in robber frogs in Dominica and Montserrat
title_full_unstemmed Reservoir frogs: seasonality of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in robber frogs in Dominica and Montserrat
title_short Reservoir frogs: seasonality of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in robber frogs in Dominica and Montserrat
title_sort reservoir frogs: seasonality of batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in robber frogs in dominica and montserrat
topic Conservation Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6573808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31231595
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7021
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