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.

[Lija]

good read for everybody! and that is why it is so important to quarantine new frog before introducing it to others or in pacman case, not to use same tongs and other things, make sure hands are washed every time, buckets, etc are separate from what we are using for our other frogs.

[Locascio]

Chytrid Fungus in the Pet Trade

As the trade of amphibians is highly unregulated, disease testing of amphibians traveling between countries and states is next to none. Many amphibians that travel often are carries of the chytrid fungus, which is greatly responsible for the amphibian declines around the world. Approximately 300 species have been detected with chytrid and it is now present in nearly 40 countries. In 2011, a study found that in many pet shops and pet expos nearly 3% of the captive amphibians tested positive for the presence of chytrid, and 13.6% of the collections yielded at least one positive result.
Humans ship millions of amphibians around the world each year. When an infected frog arrives in a new location, its disease can spread to native populations if (1) it escapes captivity, (2) it is intentionally set free, or (3) water from its holding tank is released into the environment. Native amphibian populations generally have no evolved defenses against the new pathogen, and an epidemic that results in population decline or extinction can occur. The largely unregulated pet and food trades are the two most common sources of disease introduction into naïve amphibian populations. For instance, the skin disease chytridiomycosis has been detected in Mexican axolotls in Australian pet shops, and in American bullfrogs being farmed for international trade in Uruguay. Infected frogs are also unintentionally exported internationally via the zoo trade and laboratory animal trade.
In 2003, Australia enacted what are perhaps the world's strictest regulations on the importation of non-native amphibians, this being due to chytridiomycosis having driven at least seven of Australia's frog species to complete extinction after it was introduced into the country in the late 1970's. Amphibian importation is now allowed only for zoological and laboratory usage, and must be accompanied by certificates demonstrating that stringent disease control measures (including quarantine) have taken place.
Japan banned both the sale and import of American Bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus) in 2006, and South Korea banned their importation circa 2007, both countries in part due to the consistently high chytrid infection levels found in this species, which sees heavy trade and transport.