ZOO/WILD's
2012 - 13 Activities . . .
Evaluation
and impact of chytridiomycosis on
the endemic, highly threatened
amphibians of the Western Ghats
Project
A six-membered team went on a recess
to locate populations of
chytrid-affected frogs at
Harishchandra Gadh near Pune.
Fruitfully, the team located
populations of frogs inside cave holes
and collected swabs. The swabs were
deposited at IISER, Pune for further
analysis.
The Western Ghats is a stretch
of 1600 km2 land and is one
of the richest amphibian hotspots of the
34-biodiversity hotspots of the world
with 182 described species and several
more under description.
As per the IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species Categories and Criteria more
than 43% of the species are threatened
with extinction (16 Critically
Endangered, 28 Endangered and 16
Vulnerable).
Most of the threatened species are
highly restricted in their distribution
with most of them found in less than
five locations and facing several
threats from habitat loss and decline in
quality of habitat due to changes in
land use and other human influenced
activities.
The probability of chytrid entering the
Western Ghats is greater now than in the
last year or before as there have been
recent evidences of the African Clawed
Frog Xenopus laevis entering the country
through the aquarium trade. Several
instances of wanton release of this frog
into the wild have been reported in
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala parts
of the Western Ghats (A. Padhye pers.
comm.) in the last one-year. Since the
species is imported from captive stocks,
the provenance is unknown and therefore
poses a very high threat to the native
amphibians of the Western Ghats.
Presently, there is deficiency of
information on the diseases, which
affect amphibian populations within the
Western Ghats preventing diseases as a
major threat to amphibian populations.
Swab collection. (a) Role
division between the two
sample collectors.
(b) Swabs were collected from
both the ventral and dorsal
surface of the specimen.
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Detecting
Chytridiomycosis in the Western Ghats.
What is Chytridiomycosis?
It is a fungal disease that is
threatening more than 200 species of
amphibians.
Pathogen: Amphibian Chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium
dendrobatidis).
Possible Vector: African Clawed Frog (Xenopus
laevis); American Bull Frog (Lithobates
catesbianus) and Tomistoma
sp.
Project Objectives:
Identification of populations of
amphibians affected by Chytridiomycosis
Standardising a non–invasive field
sampling protocol.
Standardise lab protocols for rapid
analysis of Chytrid swabs.
Formulate a policy document to aid the
control of trade in exotic amphibians.
Formulate a Conservation Action Plan to
save affected populations.
On–Going Work:
Field surveys have been conducted in 19
locations across the Western Ghats and
about 300 samples are underway for
processing at IISER, Pune.
Future Goals:
Develop In situ and Ex situ
strategies for conservation of affected
populations.
Conduct outreach programs on the
ill-effects of exotic pet trade to the
commons.
Challenges:
In situ mitigation of fungal
infections.
Implementation of the policy on import
of exotic amphibians into the country.
Donors: U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, USA; IISER is helping
in lab infrastruce and chemicals and
recently WILD got one more grant from
Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation
Fund which will be used to continue the
work and establish a monitoring
protocol. San Diego Zoo helped in kind
initially with respect to supplying
swabs and plasmid.
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