WIKIMEDIA, DIDIER DESCOUENSA close relative of the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd)—thought to have wiped out more than 200 amphibian species since the 1980s—has been found responsible for decimating the fire salamander population in the Netherlands over the past five years. The findings were published Monday (September 2) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The newly discovered fungus, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, or Bs, specifically targets salamanders. It eats through the skin, exposing the creatures to deadly bacteria and viruses. “It causes ulceration and holes in the skin and kills within just 12 days,” An Martel, a biologist at Ghent University in Belgium, told New Scientist.
Once Martel and her colleagues grasped the magnitude of the die-offs, they captured 39 surviving salamanders from affected areas in order to breed them in the lab. At one point, the lab-raised population dwindled to 10 individuals, but offspring may soon be released into the wild.
Though Bd and Bs are closely related, Bs is genetically different enough from Bd that previous surveillance programs for Bd would have missed Bs, co-author Matthew Fisher, a fungal ...
