The Amphibian Plague No One is Talking About
Channel: Everything Science
Date: 2020-07-19

The Amphibian Plague: Frogs, like most of the world's amphibians, are nearing extinction out by the deadliest plague you’ve never heard of, and if we don’t act fast, they could be gone for good.

An infectious disease (called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) has been spreading around the world infecting amphibians and wiping them off the map. A fungus named Batrachochytrium dendrobates (or Bd for short) was first discovered in the poison dart frog in the late 1990s. Since then it’s been found on 6 continents and infected more than 40 percent of all known amphibian species.

In a short period of time, this frog plague has contributed to the threatened status of more than half of the species it’s infected, having an even greater impact on the species than human-lead deforestation.

While humans didn’t create Bd, they’ve had a huge impact on spreading it. It’s hard to know exactly where bd originated, but we can get an idea by studying old museum specimens for the tell-tale signs of skin infection caused by the fungus. So far, the oldest known instance is from South Africa in the 1930’s and geologists think it may have spread around the world in African clawed frogs, which were once used as pregnancy tests.

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