The biologist from San Francisco State University is intrigued as to why there are no government agencies that can take care of this threat.
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Bsal was first discovered in 2013 and was killing a rare species of salamander in Netherlands.
A paper describing the potential effects of the fungus on U.S. and Mexican salamanders will appear in the July 31 issue of the journal Science. It’s an acute infection that horribly deems the salamanders into nothing but little masses of slime within three or four days.
The Ensatina salamander, a lungless salamander common along the west coast of the US, is one of hundreds of species of salamanders endemic to North America threatened by a new fungal pathogen from Asia. Even though the ban is supported by key scientists and the Center for Biological Diversity has initiated an online petition in May to enact the ban, the federal government has been dragging its heels. Those salamanders are bringing a deadly fungus with them.
Together with other colleagues, Vredenburg is asking the US Fish and Wildlife Service to prohibit the importation of live salamanders into the US immediately. By studying habitats on the continent along with salamander
The mildew, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans or Bsal, is naturally a chytrid mold tightly correlated to Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis that is actually terrorizes every toad growers throughout the environment. Pinpointed hotspots are in the southeastern United States, particularly the southern extent of the Appalachian Mountain range and its southern neighboring region; the Pacific Northwest and the Sierra Nevada; and the central highlands of Mexico. The salamander population in this region is very high and salamander imports can drive the species extinct. Los Angeles was found to be the largest port of entry, with 419,890 over this period, and of that number, 418,692 were considered Bsal threats. “They’re frequently the top predator and can make up the majority of the animal biomass of a forest”. Researchers have found out that these species can carry the fungus without getting sick. There is a ray of hope, he added.
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Vrendenburg studied Bd for decades and he know exactly how it effects. Are we going to act and preserve the species? “What’s encouraging about this time, with Bsal, is that the scientific community figured it out really quickly, and we can learn a lesson from the past”. In Europe, the fungus entered through the pet trade and led to 96% of fatality rate among salamanders. It is home to 48 percent of all known species, and most of those species are very susceptible to the contraction of Bsal. “Unfortunately the US Fish and Wildlife Service regulatory authority and capacity for addressing wildlife pathogens are weak and barely adequate to the task of stopping Bsal”.
