The population of frogs is being destroyed worldwide due to the world’s most dangerous animal disease
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It is like an epidemic in the animal world. It is the world’s worst wildlife disease. Recently published in the ‘Journal Transboundary and Emerging Diseases’, a multinational study has now developed a method to detect all known forms of the disease, which is caused by an ‘amphibian chytrid fungus’.
World’s most dreaded animal disease is killing frogs all over the world. A deadly fungal disease has been ravaging frog populations around the world for the past 40 years and has led to the extinction of 90 species. Unlike the global COVID-19 pandemic, you might not be aware of this “panzootic”. It is like an epidemic in the animal world. It is the world’s worst wildlife disease. Recently published in the ‘Journal Transboundary and Emerging Diseases’, a multinational study has now developed a method to detect all known forms of the disease, which is caused by an ‘amphibian chytrid fungus’.
This breakthrough will advance our ability to detect and research this disease while working towards a widely available treatment. ‘Chytridiomycosis’ or chytrid has caused the decline of more than 500 frog species and 90 species are threatened with extinction, including seven in Australia. The high mortality rate and the large number of species affected clearly make ‘chytrid’ the deadliest animal disease ever known. ‘Kytrid’ infects frogs by breeding in their skin. A unicellular fungus enters a skin cell, and then migrates back to the surface of the animal.
This damage to the skin affects the frog’s ability to balance water and salt levels. ‘Kytrid’ originated in Asia. Areas such as Australia and the Americas had no history of frogs previously being affected by ‘Kytrid’ to become resistant to it. The immune systems of many species were not adapted to protect against the disease, and mass mortality occurred. In the 1980s, biologists began to notice a sharp decline in the frog population, and in 1998 it was finally confirmed that the real culprit was a ‘chytrid’ fungus.
Since then, much research has focused on infection trends and how to protect vulnerable frog species. We need a reliable way to detect ‘Kytrid’ in the first place. To find out if a frog is suffering from a ‘chytrid’, the researchers tested the animal’s swab samples in the same way you would to identify COVID-19. For the past several years, a team led by researchers from the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology – Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in India has been working on a new test that can detect ‘Kytrid’ in Asia.
Disclaimer:IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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