Print PageIn the Sierra Nevada of California, some populations of mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa/Rana sierrae) have been driven rapidly extinct following the introduction of the amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, while others are persisting with the fungus. We have been investigating the mechanisms leading to these two population-level disease outcomes. Here we investigate whether differences in host susceptibility and/or disease virulence may contribute to these different outcomes. We describe the results of a laboratory experiment in which frogs from the different types of source populations (persistent vs. die-off) were exposed to the fungus from different source populations.
Results/Conclusions
We found that the fungal load increased more rapidly on frogs from die-off sites, than from persistent sites, suggesting that differences in host susceptibility may be important. We also found that the fungal growth rate differed between the various strains of the fungus, but there was no consistent difference between strains from persistent versus die-off sites.
