Posted on 05/21/2013 10:18:18 AM PDT by neverdem
Imported African animals released into the wild spread chytridiomycosis.
When improved pregnancy tests were developed in the 1960s, the advance came with an unexpected side effect: a role in the spread of chytridiomycosis, a lethal fungal disease that has wiped out hundreds of species of frogs.
A study published in PLoS ONE this week tracks the amphibian fungus that causes the disease, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, to an important reservoir in the Americas — African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis)1. The frogs were used in pregnancy tests until the early 1970s, as it was known that the animals ovulated when exposed to a pregnant woman’s urine. “My Mom told me she did the frog test,” says Vance Vredenburg, an amphibian ecologist at San Francisco State University in California who led the latest study. When the test became obsolete, hospitals released the frogs, many of which probably carried the fungus, into the wild.
Although researchers have found B. dendrobatidis in Xenopus frogs in Africa since the 1930s, no one had actually tested for the fungus in escapee Xenopus frogs in North America. Vredenburg and his colleagues tested 23 Xenopus museum samples collected in California between 2001 and 2010, and found three infected frogs from 2001 and 2003.
The work supports the idea that humans are responsible for the disease’s spread in North America, by introducing an invasive species that acts as a carrier—unusually, Xenopus frogs do not die after contracting the disease. “If it were a natural spread, a conservation biologist might say maybe we should do nothing. But this really says we need to not let nature take its course,” says Vredenburg.
There could have been multiple species and events that spread the disease worldwide, notes Allan Pessier, a pathologist at the Wildlife Disease Laboratories of the San Diego Zoo in California...
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
“When the test became obsolete, hospitals released the frogs, many of which probably carried the fungus, into the wild.”
Someone needs to be fired for turning the frogs loose!
It was Republicans, of course!
Who let the frogs out?
Dum-dum-da-dum
Republicans (conservatives) would have had frog legs for dinner.
Nope, liberal animal-rights nutballs turned them loose.
The story is nonsense. No lab tech would release test animals into the wild. That is not what happened. These particular frogs have little survivability in the wild in any case. They are not found in FL where most have been bred for decades for the pet trade. Look to another source for the demise of frogs in the US. This ain’t it.
First it was; “The Rabbit Died” then it was the frog.
Who Let the Frogs Out?
(woof..woof woof woof...)
Who Let the Frogs Out?
(ribbit...ribbit ribbit)
Who Let the Frogs Out?
lol!
LOL! I remember that movie although I never saw it.
the newspaper would have a picture of a frog, nothing more. Next day, same picture and a few words, nothing important. The same for a few days more.
Then, the day came when they had a picture of the frog with an arm sticking out of it’s mouth and the words....”I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!”. Next day was the poster for the movie FROGS.
***First it was; “The Rabbit Died” then it was the frog.***
LOL! That reminds me of an old WIZARD OF ID cartoon. The king is going on a journey and gives charge of the castle to Sir Rodney. He warns Rodney that if the Huns attack to RAISE THE DRAWBRIDGE and the castle will be IMPREGNABLE!
he warns that if the other tribes attack to raise the drawbridge and the castle will be IMPREGNABLE!
Same for several other panels. The king leaves.
Guard: “SIR RODNEY! The Huns are attacking!”
Sir Rodney: “DRAW THE RAISEBRIDGE!”
The King receives a message from Sir Rodney: “The rabbit died.”
So it’s not due to global warming?
That was the claim for a number of years.
LOL!
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