Science Advisor to the Secretary, Dr
... the Boreal toad in Colorado, because I was the mycologist interested in isolating the fungus to have it available for studies of population genetics—to answer the question of whether this organism was native or introduced—I was the recipient of dead Boreal toads sent by Mark Jones, then the Colorado ...
... the Boreal toad in Colorado, because I was the mycologist interested in isolating the fungus to have it available for studies of population genetics—to answer the question of whether this organism was native or introduced—I was the recipient of dead Boreal toads sent by Mark Jones, then the Colorado ...
Chytridiomycosis
Chytridiomycosis is an infectious disease of amphibians, caused by the chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a nonhyphal 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. Much of the New World is also at risk of the disease arriving within the coming years.The fungus is capable of causing sporadic deaths in some amphibian populations and 100% mortality in others. No effective measure is known for control of the disease in wild populations. Various clinical signs are seen by individuals affected by the disease. A number of options are possible for controlling this disease-causing fungus, though none has proved to be feasible on a large scale. The disease has been proposed as a contributing factor to a global decline in amphibian populations that apparently has affected about 30% of the amphibian species of the world.