Read more: Click here to read the original, longer version of this story.
AS IF one plague wasn鈥檛 enough. The chytrid fungus is already sweeping through the world鈥檚 amphibians, and now two killer ranaviruses have ravaged several amphibian populations in Spain.
鈥淭hey haemorrhage throughout their tissues, vomit blood and pass it out through their guts, and suffer huge open ulcers,鈥� says Stephen Price of University College London. These ranaviruses can also cause limb loss.
Advertisement
Price and his team have shown that the viruses have caused the collapse of three amphibian species in Spain鈥檚 Picos de Europa National Park. The outbreaks have occurred since 2005 in several separate sites across the park. They have mainly affected the common midwife toad, the alpine newt and the common toad, although all six amphibian species native to the most species-rich site in the park have now been infected. Thankfully, says Price, the viruses have not yet overlapped anywhere with the chytrid fungus (Current Biology, ).
The origins of the viruses are unknown. One idea is that imports of amphibians from China, where species like bullfrogs are farmed for food, may have been involved.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淟ethal viruses strike amphibians鈥�
