The Chytrid Fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Infecting the Creole Frog Leptodactylus latrans in a New Region of West Argentina

GHIRARDI, ROMINA; LÓPEZ, JAVIER ALEJANDRO; ANTONIAZZI, CAROLINA ELIZABET

HERPETOLOGICAL REVIEW

SSAR

Lugar: Kansas; Año: 2018 vol. 49

0018-084X

The emerging infectious disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), can trigger rapid amphibian population declines and extirpations (Vredenburg et al. 2010). In some cases, Bd may persist in ?reservoir hosts? which do not experience disease symptoms when infected, thus maintaining the pathogen within the ecosystem in the absence or with low density of other disease-susceptible hosts (Brannelly et al. 2017). The disease and host community dynamics of disease-susceptible and ?reservoir hosts are not well understood. The first case of chytridiomycosis in Argentina was reported by Herrera et al. (2005) in a dead specimen of L. latrans. Since the report of Herrera et al. (2005), there have been additional of L. latrans individuals infected by Bd in Argentina. Our results add a new record of Bd to the list of L. latrans infected, and in a new bioregion from Argentina. Moreover, the apparently widespread infection of this chytrid fungus in populations of L. latrans from different climates, altitudes and bioregions.