Source: TH
Context: A new study has now developed a method to detect all known strains of a disease-killing frog’s world over, caused by the amphibian chytrid fungus.
- Chytridiomycosis, or “chytrid” for short, has driven severe declines in over 500 frog species and caused 90 extinctions, including seven in Australia.
- The extreme rate of mortality, and the high number of species affected, make chytrid unequivocally the deadliest animal disease known to date.
How it infects:
- Chytrid infects frogs by reproducing in their skin. The single-celled fungus enters a skin cell, multiplies, and then breaks back out onto the surface of the animal.
- This damage to the skin affects the frog’s ability to balance water and salt levels and eventually leads to death if infection levels are high enough.
