Abstract
Chytridiomycosis is an emerging disease responsible for global decline and extinction of amphibians. We report the causative agent, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, in North American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) farmed for the international restaurant trade. Our findings suggest that international trade may play a key role in the global dissemination of this and other emerging infectious diseases in wildlife.
Highlights
Chytridiomycosis is an emerging disease responsible for a series of global declines and extinctions of amphibians
Cutaneous chytrid infection was detected during an investigation into mass deaths in farmed North American bullfrogs
Chytridiomycosis has been reported as an important cause of mass deaths in wild amphibians, whether chytrid infection was the cause of deaths in the disease outbreak described in this paper is unclear
Summary
Chytridiomycosis is an emerging disease responsible for a series of global declines and extinctions of amphibians. We report on B. dendrobatidis in captive bullfrogs, which was identified during an episode of unusually high death rates of unknown cause and which implicates a relatively new food animal trade in the spread of this disease. By day 10, all frogs in the three index tanks were dead, and the disease had spread to metamorphs in other tanks on the farm.
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