Where Are We At With Frog Fungus (Chytridiomycosis)
“The disease... is the worst infectious disease ever recorded in wildlife. (A)s of this time, there are 90 amphibians that have already been driven extinct... and another 500 are under severe threat.”
Southern Corroboree frog
Frogs tend not to get a lot of love around the world. In fact, we often refer to them in negative terms. Kissing a frog to get a prince, basically doing something unpleasant to yield a positive result. Mark Twain supposedly told us to “Eat the frog” first thing in the morning, meaning do the worst and hardest thing first to get it out of the way.
They, and their amphibian cousins, have been devasted by a fungal disease first identified in Queensland, Australia but found all over the world. Dr Tiffany Kosch, from the University of Melbourne, joins us to explain what radical options there are for saving frogs, the work she and her team did in sequencing the genome of the iconic Southern Corroboree Frog from Australia, and why women peeing on frogs didn’t spread the disease.
Although you probably weren’t thinking they did anyway.
Ever had a frog in your throat? They’re much cuter on your finger.
Courtesy: C Doughty
The actual genomic sequence of the Southern Corroboree frog. Apparently Keanu Reeves can look at this and just see the frog.
Courtesy: T. Kosch
Measuring the Corroboree frog. So tiny!
Courtesy: T Kosch
