Saving salamanders from amphibian killer may take extreme measures
WASHINGTON — North America, a Garden of Eden for salamanders, faces a dire threat from a recently discovered fungal disease. But biologists say that lessons learned from the last worldwide wave of amphibian die-offs are helping to rush a new animal import ban and other measures into effect that could prevent the introduction and spread of the deadly disease here.
Fears of widespread die-offs come from the 2013 discovery in northern Europe of a previously unrecognized Batrachochytrium fungus nicknamed Bsal (SN: 10/5/13, p. 18). This fungus has already ravaged populations of rare salamanders in the Netherlands by eating away their skin. There’s no known way to rid most wild populations of the disease. But the good news is that there’s no sign — yet — that Bsal has reached North America, Karen Lips of the University of Maryland in College Park reported February 12 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Lips was one of several biologists at the meeting who has had the rare horror of witnessing a previous wave of lethal fungus, called Bd, sweep through new territory and kill amphibians by the thousands. She and colleagues pleaded for a faster, more informed attempt at defense this time.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/saving-salamanders-amphibian-killer-may-take-extreme-measures?tgt=nr
