A frog that died of the chytrid fungus infection. Photo from Wikimedia Commons taken by Forrest Brem.

The population of most amphibian species has in recent years shown a dramatic worldwide decline. This decline which for some tropical frog species has resulted in local extinctions is caused by a fungus infection that has proven very difficult to combat. However new research may offer a solution. Experiments suggest that warm water may rid the frogs of the infections. This has now been confirmed by a field study on Leopard frogs, which show that frogs living in water heated by geothermal springs have a much lower infection rate that other frogs found in nearby colder water.

Since the infection is so virulent that it often leads to local extinction, with high risk of global extinction in endemic species, researchers are working frantically in finding a cure for the disease. Recent results suggest that perhaps temperature can play a role in curing infected individuals since the fungus dies at temperature above 27-28 degrees Celsius.

Phd Student Matthew Forrest from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Assistant Professor Martin Schlaepfer from the State University of New York in the United States set out to confirm these results by conducting field experiments. They investigated how Bd prevalence in the leopard frog (Rana yavapaiensis) correlated with water temperature. In order to do this they caught leopard frogs from 12 sites in Arizona, US, where 7 of the sites were influenced by geothermal springs or wells.

The two scientists found a clear correlation between temperature and fungus infection in that the Bd infection rate was around 75%-100% in sites where the water temperature was below 15 degrees Celsius, but only 10% in water with a temperature higher than 30 degrees Celsius.

Thus this study together with other recent research suggests that infected amphibians can be successfully cleansed by placing them in hot water for a period of time. Although not a practical solution for a large scale treatment of wild amphibians, it may prevent extinction of rare and endangered species.

Source:
Forrest, M. J. and Schlaepfer, M.A. (2011). Nothing a hot bath won't cure: infection rates of amphibian Chytroid fungus correlates negatively with temperature under natural field settings. PLoS One 6(12): e284414.

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