TY  - JOUR
A1  - Böning, Philipp
A1  - Lötters, Stefan
A1  - Barzaghi, Benedetta
A1  - Bock, Marvin
A1  - Bock, Bobby
A1  - Bonato, Lucio
A1  - Ficetola, Gentile Francesco
A1  - Glaser, Florian
A1  - Griese, Joseline
A1  - Grabher, Markus
A1  - Leroux, Camille
A1  - Munimanda, Gopikrishna
A1  - Manenti, Raoul
A1  - Ludwig, Gerda
A1  - Preininger, Doris
A1  - Rödel, Mark-Oliver
A1  - Seibold, Sebastian
A1  - Smith, Steve
A1  - Tiemann, Laura
A1  - Thein, Jürgen
A1  - Veith, Michael
A1  - Plewnia, Amadeus
T1  - Alpine salamanders at risk? The current status of an emerging fungal pathogen
T2  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Amphibians globally suffer from emerging infectious diseases like chytridiomycosis caused by the continuously spreading chytrid fungi. One is Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) and its disease ‒ the ‘salamander plague’ ‒ which is lethal to several caudate taxa. Recently introduced into Western Europe, long distance dispersal of Bsal, likely through human mediation, has been reported. Herein we study if Alpine salamanders (Salamandra atra and S. lanzai) are yet affected by the salamander plague in the wild. Members of the genus Salamandra are highly susceptible to Bsal leading to the lethal disease. Moreover, ecological modelling has shown that the Alps and Dinarides, where Alpine salamanders occur, are generally suitable for Bsal. We analysed skin swabs of 818 individuals of Alpine salamanders and syntopic amphibians at 40 sites between 2017 to 2022. Further, we compiled those with published data from 319 individuals from 13 sites concluding that Bsal infections were not detected. Our results suggest that the salamander plague so far is absent from the geographic ranges of Alpine salamanders. That means that there is still a chance to timely implement surveillance strategies. Among others, we recommend prevention measures, citizen science approaches, and ex situ conservation breeding of endemic salamandrid lineages.
KW  - Alpensalamander
KW  - Pilzbefall
KW  - Infektionsrisiko
Y1  - 2024
UR  - https://ubt.opus.hbz-nrw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2449
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:385-1-24497
VL  - 2024
IS  - 19/5
PB  - PLOS
CY  - Zürich
ER  -