The influence of landscape and environmental factors on ranavirus epidemiology in a California amphibian assemblage.

ABSTRACT: A fundamental goal of disease ecology is to determine the landscape and environmental processes that drive disease dynamics at different biological levels to guide management and conservation. Although ranaviruses (family Iridoviridae) are emerging amphibian pathogens, few studies have conducted comprehensive field surveys to assess potential drivers of ranavirus disease dynamics.We examined the factors underlying patterns in site-level ranavirus presence and individual-level ranavirus infection in 76 ponds and 1,088 individuals representing 5 amphibian species within the East Bay region of California.Based on a competing-model approach followed by variance partitioning, landscape and biotic variables explained the most variation in site-level presence. However, biotic and individua

SUBMITTER: Tornabene BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6097636 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature