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Abstract
BackgroundRanavirus is an emerging infectious disease which has been linked to mass mortality events in various amphibian species. In this study, we document the first mass mortality event of an adult population of Dybowski’s brown frogs (Rana dybowskii), in 2017, within a mountain valley in South Korea.ResultsWe confirmed the presence of ranavirus from all collected frogs (n = 22) via PCR and obtained the 500 bp major capsid protein (MCP) sequence from 13 individuals. The identified MCP sequence highly resembled Frog virus 3 (FV3) and was the same haplotype of a previously identified viral sequence collected from Huanren brown frog (R. huanrenensis) tadpoles in South Korea. Human habitat alteration, by recent erosion control works, may be partially responsible for this mass mortality event.ConclusionWe document the first mass mortality event in a wild Korean population of R. dybowskii. We also suggest, to determine if ranavirus infection is a threat to amphibians, government officials and researchers should develop continuous, country-wide, ranavirus monitoring programs of Korean amphibian populations.
Highlights
Ranavirus is an emerging infectious disease which has been linked to mass mortality events in various amphibian species
We described a mass mortality event, which occurred in 2017, in a wild population of Dybowski’s brown frogs (R. dybowskii) in South Korea
Considering that erythema and skin ulcerations on the legs and ventrum, in amphibians, are known external characteristics of ranavirus infection (Gray et al 2009; Park et al 2017), we suspected our specimens might be infected with ranavirus
Summary
Ranavirus is an emerging infectious disease which has been linked to mass mortality events in various amphibian species. We document the first mass mortality event of an adult population of Dybowski’s brown frogs (Rana dybowskii), in 2017, within a mountain valley in South Korea. Emerging infectious diseases are one of the key factors causing rapid global biodiversity declines in this century (Fey et al 2015). Fungal infections by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and B. salamandriborans, causing chytridiomycosis, have been implicated as a primary cause of rapid amphibian population declines (Daszak et al 1999; Scheele et al 2019). Ranavirus, a double-stranded DNA virus, has been identified as a major emerging infectious disease and is associated with global amphibian declines (Green et al 2002; Carey et al 2003). Park et al Journal of Ecology and Environment Nation Host species Captivity
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