A new lab contribution and collaboration with the Warne Lab was published this week in PLoS ONE and examines co-infection with the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and Ranaviruses in wild and harvested frogs in Peru. A previous publication had found high prevalence of chytrid infection in harvested frogs (see photo), our new study confirms such high prevalence and also detects high prevalence of Ranavirus infection. Somewhat surprisingly, we also found Ranavirus to be relatively frequent in cloud forest frogs in the Amazonian slopes of the Andes, including among terrestrial-breeding frogs that do not commonly use water bodies. Amphibian communities in the these forests have been decimated by epizootics of chytridiomycosis in the early 2000s, and co-infection with Ranavirus in surviving species may play a role in population persistence or population recovery following epizootics.
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