A historical overview of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection from specimens at the National Zoological Collection Suriname

Abstract

The amphibian skin disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the pathogenetic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has become one of the major contributors to global amphibian population declines and extinctions. This fungus has spread globally and has caused mortalities in nearly every continent. In South America, Suriname, Guyana and Paraguay are among the remaining three countries where Bd has not been detected to date. To complete the assessment of the possible presence of Bd in Suriname, 205 specimens from the Zoological Collection of Suriname, compromising 6 frog families and 15 genera were sampled for chytrid fungus. No specimens were found to be infected by this fungus and as such the outcome strengthens the previous result of field sampling that there is no support that Bd has spread to Suriname.

Global Patterns of the Fungal Pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Support Conservation Urgency

“…Communication of the global Bd database move to AmphibianDisease.org and encouragement of ongoing project plans as well as data imports is important going forward, as metadata analyses of global data compilations can be important for hypothesis testing and pattern revelations [e.g., (50)(51)(52)(53)]. The consistency of the results presented here from joint webportal data imports compilation and literature searches was comparable to a more technical web search of journals (30).…”

“…Third, knowledge of pathogen occurrences can inform biosecurity procedures to forestall human-mediated translocation (47)(48)(49). In addition, global datasets can enable novel metadata analyses of specific hypotheses; the global Bd database has contributed to a variety of analyses of host-pathogen and disease-threat dynamics [e.g., (50)(51)(52)(53)]. However, the initial Bd online database had some constraints.…”

Synthesis ofBatrachochytrium dendrobatidisinfection in South America: amphibian species under risk and areas to focus research and disease mitigation

“…Although Mathie et al (2018) analysed 247 samples from the Kanuku Mountauns in south‐western Guyana, no evidence of Bd infection was found. Similarly, an absence of Bd from an extensive survey in Suriname has been corroborated (Jairam 2020). The absence or low occurrence of Bd in large areas of the Amazon basin, Caribbean lowlands and the southern cone of South America represent coldspots of Bd (i.e.…”

Predicted Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection sites in Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana using the species distribution model maxent

“…In South America, Bd has been found in 10 of 13 countries (Bd-maps database, accessed 08 August 2020). The three Bd-free countries are Paraguay, Guyana and Suriname [ 25 ], the last two of which are part of a unique Precambrian geological formation–the Guiana Shield–which also includes French Guiana. For the three Guiana’s (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana), Bd occurs in French Guiana, where it was first detected in 2012 [ 26 ] and more widespread after surveying other regions in French Guiana [ 27 ].…”