About
Amphibian Disease Portal - Motivated by the decline of amphibians globally and the growing understanding of diseases as major factors, AmphibiaWeb and the US Forest Service are collaborating to develop a community-based, online repository and reporting site for data on major infectious diseases, especially chytridiomycosis. Our mission is to aggregate, visualize and share data from the community of active researchers archiving their completed and in progress datasets from laboratory experiments and field sites around the world.
The amphibian fungal disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has caused the extinction of hundreds of amphibian species globally over the last few decades. In addition, a newly described fungal pathogen, B. salamandrivorans (Bsal), thought to have evolved in Asia and recently introduced to Europe, has caused mass die-offs in native European salamanders. Our ability to predict outbreaks caused by these pathogenic fungi is poor. To help understand and predict these phenomena we are creating a globally accessible site for aggregating information from tested samples (Bd and Bsal) including interactive visualization of these data and the on-going activities of participants.
In this rapidly developing area of science, making information more quickly and readily available will enable the scientific community to test and build predictive models more efficiently. Making data readily available should facilitate both research and management/ conservation decisions.
We aim to be a repository for Bd and Bsal data from field and biocollection samples. Only by the community coming together to aggregate data will we be able to understand the disease dynamics of this major cause of amphibian declines worldwide.
New Posts
We will add relevant news and resources to our posts. Please let us know if you have news or information you would like to share.
Users of the portal
- Researchers - those studying epizootic diseases, amphibian biology, conservation, conservation prioritization
- Field and Lab Contributors - especially those seeking a repository for their data and seeking collaborators for their efforts.
- Land & Wildlife Managers - those needing to know what kind of chytrid sampling or results have been done for the lands they manage and for surrounding areas
- Anyone concerned with the global decline of amphibians due to chytridiomycosis
Our partners
- PARC Disease Task Team: Read more on the Bsal Call to Action
- USGS Powell Center
- USDA Forest Service
Researchers
- San Francisco State University (SFSU)
- Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (SIU)
- University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
- University of Maryland (UM)
- US Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station (PNW)
- US Geological Survey, Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI)
Diagnostic Labs
(alphabetical)
- Catenazzi Lab (SIU)
- Lips Lab (UM)
- Martel and Pasmans Wildlife Population Health Labs (UGent)
- Vredenburg Lab (SFSU)
Maps
More information
Salamander Fungus
AmphibiaWeb on the Salamander Fungus
PARC Bsal Task Team
Amphibian Survival Alliance
Follow our progress. Visit us on GitHub
to the Bsal listserve and keep up to date.
 |
 |
 |
 |