Significant reductions of host abundance weakly impact infection intensity of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.

ABSTRACT: Infectious diseases are considered major threats to biodiversity, however strategies to mitigate their impacts in the natural world are scarce and largely unsuccessful. Chytridiomycosis is responsible for the decline of hundreds of amphibian species worldwide, but an effective disease management strategy that could be applied across natural habitats is still lacking. In general amphibian larvae can be easily captured, offering opportunities to ascertain the impact of altering the abundance of hosts, considered to be a key parameter affecting the severity of the disease. Here, we report the results of two experiments to investigate how altering host abundance affects infection intensity in amphibian populations of a montane area of Central Spain suffering from lethal amphibian chytridiomyco

SUBMITTER: Bosch J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7703926 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature