Killer, Foreign Fungus May Destroy Salamanders in North America

A deadly fungus is sweeping across salamanders and now, scientists are calling for an immediate ban of salamander importation to halt its spread. If the fungus isn't stopped, it could devastate native salamander populations in North America.

Salamanders are popular as pets worldwide. This means that they're frequently traded across borders. Unfortunately, this also makes the spread of disease easier; the fungus could potentially spread from Asia, where it likely originated, to other parts of het globe.

The fungus itself is called Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) fungus. It could be especially deadly in the southeastern United States in addition to the southern extent of the Appalachian Mountain range and the Pacific Northwest and Sierra Nevada.

"This is an imminent threat, and a place where policy could have a very positive effect," said Vance Vredenburg, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We actually have a decent change of preventing a major catastrophe."

Salamanders are important predators of insects, and are also an important part of the food chain. With their disappearance, ecosystems could suffer.

In order to get a better understanding of what might happen with the Bsal fungus, the researchers studied another fungus, called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). More than 200 species of amphibians have gone extinct or are near extinction due to Bd.

"One of the things that I find remarkable about this is that unlike when we first figured out what was going on with Bd, no one could even imagine that one pathogen could cause so much damage across all these different species, because we had never seen anything like that ever before," said Vredenburg. "What's encouraging about this time, with Bsal, is that the scientific community figured it out really quickly, and we can learn a lesson from the past."

The findings are published in the journal Science.

Related Stories

Chinese Giant Salamander May be at Risk from Diseased Farms

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).