Red leg (chytrid fungus)

[Locascio]

Chytrid fungus
This is some infothat I have found about (red leg)
Fungi are far and away the biggest threat to globalamphibian health, including saprolegnia,mucor amphibiorum, and batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, calledchytrid for short .chytritd fungus is responsible for chytridiomycosis, a fatalfungal disease that leads to thicking and sloughing of the skin and death byunknown causes. Its scientific names comes from the central American poisonfrogs from which it was first cultured. After it was found, frogs that hadebeen placed in museum collections were studied to see if historical dateexisted for the disease. Researchers found that during the 20^thcentury, clawed frogs, xenopus spp.,were exported from their native south Africa in huge numbers to be used inhuman pregnancy testing as well as kept for pets and studied in laboratoriesaround the world. Some frogs inevitably escaped or were released andestablished populations. In the wild, xenopuscarries chytrid without apparent damageto itself. studies in south Africa show that chytrid is widespread in localpopulations and hase been around since the 1930s and perhaps longer. It is nowsuspected that captive clawed frogs may be the source of the fungus that isdecimating other frogs around the world. Chytrid fungus dose not kill infectedtadpoles because only their mouthparts have keratin. The infection takes offwhen keratin forms elsewhere in the body durning the complicated process of metamorphosis. The disease erupts in fullforce and wipes out newly transforming frogs. Massive metamorph mortalityfollows. (chytridiomycosis) is fast-spreading and deadly. Chytrid spores canstay in infected water forever, even if the pond dries up and refills.Conservation authorities now plead with people not to move frogs around withoutfirst testing for chytrid fungus. Genetic sequencing of chytrid specimens fromall areas were the disease has been cultured has shown only a small amount ofgenetic variability. This leads researchers to conclude that (chytridiomycosis)is a recently emerged infectious disease that has been introduced intopopulations that have no resistance against it. Two of the genetically closestsamples were from panama and Australia, which suggests that chytird arrived inone country from the other. U.S wild strain seems to be slightly distant fromthose on other continents. As with many new diseases, chytrid is acting like avirulent pathogen wiping out everything in its path.
Bacterial infections are difficult to catch in time fortreatment so its critical that you don’t create favorable conditions for them likeStress,stress suppresses an amphibians immune system, making it susceptible todisease. Fluctuating or inappropriate temperature and humidity levels, thewrong photoperiod, a lack of hideing spot, over-aggressive cage mates, andhandling are all common causes of stress in captive frogs and toads. Captive amphibians can get chytrid fromcomeing into contact with other infected frogs husbandry equipment that isshard between cages with infected frogs and from soil or other moist organicsubstances that contain infectious spors. Just as consurning as the number ofways captive amphibians can come down with chytrid infection is the fact thatthay can be infected and not show symptoms for substantial periods of time,infecting others and then dying almost overnight months later after a drop intemperature or stressful situation.