Sunday, 8 April 2018

What stops mass extinctions? Lessons from amphibian die-off in Panama



Date:  March 29, 2018
Source:  Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Summary:
What slows or stops a disease epidemic if the pathogen is still present? It appears that wild frogs are becoming increasingly resistant to the chytrid fungal disease that has decimated amphibian populations around the world.

Black plague killed between 30 to 50 percent of people worldwide. The cause, Yersinia pestis, is still around, but people are not dying of the plague. An even more devastating modern disease caused by the chytrid fungus wiped entire frog and salamander populations off the map. New results from work at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama published in the Mar. 29 edition of Science, reveal the outcomes of the chytridiomycosis epidemic and their implications for diseases of mass destruction.


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