Monitoring of the pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans in captive populations in Spain

Barbora Thumsová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Chytridiomycosis is emerging and fatal amphibian skin disease and it has been identified as a major driver of amphibian declines and extinctions worldwide. It is caused by two similar fungi – Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and recently discovered Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). Bsal is serious threat for European caudate species, causing significant mortality and morbidity within living specimens of salamanders. Until now it was identified in wild populations of salamanders in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Spain and in kept salamander populations in Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. Spain, together with Germany and the Czech Republic, has a sizable community of exotic pet keepers and the country is important in the amphibian pet trade which is considered as the main cause of the pathogens‘ transmission. In Spanish captivity, Bsal was first time detected as part of passive surveillence in 2015 but the active monitoring of this pathogenic chytrid fungus was still missing. Therefore, this diploma thesis is aimed on monitoring of Bsal in Spanish captive collections. As part of this work 287 samples from 7 Spanish captive collections of amphibians (mostly composed of urodeles species) were taken and 249 samples were analysed in the laboratory of Czech University of Life Sciences (CULS) by using the standard PCR. Bsal absence has been confirmed in all of the analysed samples (the results will serve as a basis for a manuscript for a scientific journal). Furthermore, two agreements were concluded about the collaboration in Bsal research between CULS, BIOPARC Valencia and Fundación Oceanogràfic de la Comunitat Valenciana. Outside the scope of this diploma thesis, I was participating in the monitoring of the pathogen Bsal in Spanish wild populations, where our team confirmed the further spreading of Bsal. From those results a manuscript was prepared which has been submitted to Emerging Infectious Diseases journal (IF – 7,422). The text of the manuscript can be found in Appendix 3.

Keywords

amphibian conservation, amphibian diseases, captive amphibians, chytridiomycosis, PCR

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 10. 12. 2018

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Ing. Jiří Vojar, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Environmental Sciences

Master programme / field:
Engineering Ecology / Nature Conservation