WIKIMEDIA, TUURIO AND WALLIEChytridiomycosis, a disease caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, threatens amphibian species the world over. But a team of researchers from Spain and the U.K. has successfully cured a wild population of Mallorcan midwife toads (Alytes muletensis), the group reported yesterday (November 18) in Biology Letters.
“This is the first time that chytrid has ever been successfully eliminated from a wild population,” said study coauthor Jaime Bosch of Madrid’s National Museum of Natural Science in a press release.
The Mallorcan midwife toad is endemic to the island of Mallorca, where chytrid fungus was accidentally introduced in the 1990s. Bosch’s team began trying to eliminate the disease in 2009, but while tadpoles treated with itraconazole in the lab were cured, the amphibians were reinfected once returned to their environment—even after their seasonal ponds had dried and refilled with autumn rains.
In 2013, the team removed tadpoles for lab treatments again, but also treated the seasonal pond locations with an industrial disinfectant called Virkon S. “The disinfectant was liberally applied to all rock, ...
