Abstract
The amphibian fungal disease Chytridiomycosis is considered one of the greatest threats to biodiversity. This lethal skin disease is caused by Chytridiomycete fungi belonging to the genus Batrachochytrium.
Although sudden amphibian population declines had occurred since the 1970s in the Americas and Australia, mass mortalities were not observed until the 1990s. The fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) was identified as the cause of these declines. It is estimated that Bd has caused the rapid decline or extinction of at least 200 amphibian species, which is probably an underestimation due to the cryptic behaviour of many amphibians such as many salamanders and also the lack of monitoring. A second chytrid species, B. Salamandrivorans (Bsal), has recently emerged and caused mass mortality in salamanders in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, affecting most salamander and newt taxa in the amphibian community and is considered a major threat to the western Palearctic amphibian biodiversity. In thisA. Martel (*) ∙ F. Pasmans
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Avian Diseases, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
e-mail: an.martel@ugent.be; frank.pasmans@ugent.be
M. C. Fisher
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
e-mail: matthew.fisher@imperial.ac.uk
L. F. Grogan
Griffith University, Environmental Futures Research Institute, School of Environment, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
e-mail: l.grogan@griffith.edu.au
L. F. Skerratt ∙ L. Berger
One Health Research Group, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia e-mail: lee.skerratt@jcu.edu.au; lee.berger@jcu.edu.au
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
S. Seyedmousavi et al. (eds.), Emerging and Epizootic Fungal Infections in Animals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72093-7_14 chapter we review the epidemiology, host pathogen interactions and mitigation strategies of both chytrid pathogens.
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