Factors affecting interspecific variation in susceptibility to disease in amphibians

Abstract

In recent decades, infectious diseases affecting populations of wildlife and plants have been emerging at unusually high rates; emerging disease currently poses a great threat to the conservation of global biodiversity (Harvell et al. 1999; Ward and Lafferty 2004). Amphibians that have declined or been eliminated due to disease are taxonomically diverse and occur in a variety of systems (Berger et at. 1998; Bosch et al. 2001; Bradley et at. 2002; Weldon and Du Preez 2004; Lips et al. 2006; Rachowicz el at. 2006). In addition to causing declines, pathogens may prevent the recovery of a species by persisting within the host population or within environmental reservoirs or alternate hosts (Lafferty and Gerber 2002; Relallick 2002; DeCastro and Bolker 2005). Furthermore, if the disease itself does not eliminate the host species, the reduction in abundance of the host after a disease outbreak will increase susceptibility to extinction by other factors, such as random stochastic events (Lafferty and Gerber 2002).