Scientists have unravelled the mechanism by which the fungal disease chytridiomycosis kills its victims.
The BBC reports that a group of scientists has published an article in the journal Science that chytrid fungus kills by changing the electrolyte balance of animals, resulting in cardiac arrest. Chytrid, which was discovered in 1998, is one of the major killers of amphibians across the globe, along with habitat destruction and climate change. Curing amphibians in captivity can now be done using antifungal chemicals, but there is currently no way of treating the disease in wild populations.
If scientists can now discover more about how the elctrolyte balance is disrupted, they may also ultimately, discover a way to reduce the mortality rate in wild amphibian populations.
November 23, 2009 at 6:47 pm
I knew that Chytrid led to the thickening of the skin, leading to blocking of water uptake, and the ion balance, but I would have assumed it would have killed via suffocation. Thankfully we have not detected any Chytrid in the populations we have looked at in pond breeding salamanders, but we have seen Frog Virus 3 in ponds that have regular cattle access in Spotted Salamander larvae.