- Hello, Jeff - We have been warned about this for some
time. I find it hard to understand how thinking people can reject the
scientific data regarding global climate change. Amphibians will be but
one species affected and maybe killed off by fungus diseases as well as
by direct pollution.
-
- Modern humans have not been very good care takers of
this planet. Many indigenous tribal cultures have stressed the need to
care for the planet over eons. yet modern man terms these folks "primative."
Who is the real primitive? Those who were caretakers of the planet or
modern technologically advanced humans? I will have to say that the real
primitives are those who pollute and kill the planet and its flora and
fauna.
-
- In India, vultures are dying off due to pharmaceuticals
in the environment. Without vultures to clean and "recycle,"
diseases like Rabies flourish. Vultures are immunologically sophisticated
with super immune systems and relatively disease free.
-
- Marine creatures are dying in our oceans, many die from
ingesting plastics. Fish, and birds alike are dying of heavy metals, such
as lead, mercury etc.
-
- Man consumes these animals and aquatic creatures...and
will eventually succumb to the same fate.
-
- It might do modern man well to emulate the example of
tribal peoples and show care and respect for the planet and the environment.
It may be too late to stop the cliamte change but we may be able to delay
or mitigate it.
-
- Chytrid Fungus disease is killing off amphibians worldwide.
Amphibians may just be the miner's canary of the planet.
-
- Patty
-
- CHYTRID FUNGUS, AMPHIBIAN - WORLDWIDE
-
- A ProMED-mail
- ProMED-mail, a program of the
- International Society for Infectious Diseases
-
- BBC News
- 10-28-6
-
- A fungal disease that threatens to wipe out many amphibians
is thriving because of climate change, a study suggests.
-
- Researchers studying amphibians at a national park in
Spain show that rising temperatures are closely linked to outbreaks of
the chytrid fungus. Chytrid fungus is a major contributor to the decline
of amphibian populations around the world, threatening many species with
extinction.
-
- Details are published in the journal Proceedings of the
Royal Society B. "We have found an association between increasing
temperatures and amphibian disease in a mountain region in Spain,"
said Dr Matthew Fisher of Imperial College London. "This is a global
emerging amphibian pathogen which is one of the worst vertebrate infectious
diseases found so far. It is causing a huge amount of extinction and disease
within amphibian populations."
-
- More than 100 species of amphibians are known to be affected
by the chytrid fungus (_Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis_). Some are very
susceptible and die quickly while others which are more resistant are carriers
of the pathogen. The disease is already credited with wiping out frogs
and toads in large numbers in Australia and South America.
-
- Dr Fisher and his Spanish colleagues uncovered an association
between the emergence of the disease and global warming while studying
changes in the number of midwife toads in Spain's Penalara Natural Park
between 1976 and 2002.
-
- The chytrid fungus, or BD as it is sometimes called,
infects the skins of amphibians such as frogs, toads, salamanders and newts
and interferes with their ability to absorb water. Dr Fisher said climate
change could be worsening the impact of the disease in one of 2 ways.
Warming temperatures could be reducing the amphibians' ability to mount
a successful immune response to the fungus. Amphibians are cold-blooded
so their ability to respond to the pathogen could change along with the
external temperature.
-
- On the other hand, global warming could be increasing
the fungus' ability to grow faster on the amphibian and cause more disease.
"This is a wake-up call that we are losing biodiversity fast,"
Dr Fisher said. "Climate change appears to be changing patterns of
disease and previously resistant species are becoming highly infected --
even, in a number of cases, becoming extinct."
-
- The Global Amphibian Assessment has warned that 1/3 of
the world's amphibian species are in danger of extinction, many because
of the chytrid fungus.
-
- ProMED-mail
- promed@promedmail.org
-
- See map of global distribution of chytrid fungus at:
- http://www.amphibiaweb.org/aw/images/chytrid_map_04.jpg
- Image of fungus at:
- http://www.clarku.edu/faculty/dhibbett/TFTOL/images/fungi/chytrid_csa.jpg>
- - Mod.JW
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
-
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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