In an essay published in PLOS Pathogens, Matt Gray, a researcher with the UT Institute of Agriculture Center for Wildlife Health, along with a coalition of international scientists describe a new threat to the survival of some North American salamanders. The threat is posed by Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), an emerging fungal pathogen that has caused recent die-offs of salamanders in Europe. Laboratory experiments have confirmed that the pathogen can kill some North American species as well.
Gray and his colleagues from across the US, Mexico, Canada, and Europe say now is the time to act to save the salamanders. “All evidence suggests that we are at a critical time of action to protect global amphibian biodiversity by swift policy actions to prevent the translocation of Bsal,” they write in the essay. Continue reading on the UT Institute of Agriculture’s website.