- general info here and here; also see chapter 7 from Wayne and Bolker (2015), posted on Teams
- most chytrid fungi are harmless saprophytes or parasites of microbes, but a few are pathogenic on amphibians, including …
- Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (“Bd”) (Joyce Longcore)
- life cycle: thallus → zoosporangia (frog skin) → zoospores (free living, motile, aquatic) → …
- where did it come from?
- novel pathogen hypothesis: mutation/speciation + dispersal
- tipping point hypothesis: in populations all the time, but something happened to make it virulent
- extinction paradox (De Castro and Bolker 2005)
- extirpation (local extinction) vs global (‘true’) extinction
- density-dependent parasites can’t cause host extinction (in simple theoretical models!)
- alternatives: density-independence, small populations, reservoirs
- how does it move around/persist in the environment?
- alternative hosts?
- environmental reservoir?
References
Wayne, Marta, and Benjamin Bolker. 2015. Infectious Disease: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Last updated: 2022-02-07 10:39:10