Scientists call for a ban on salamander imports due to deadly fungus

The Bsal fungus is believed to come from China and is spread through pet trade.

Writing Thursday in the journal Science, scientists from San Francisco State University, the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA pinpointed regions of the U.S. where native salamanders, a key part of forest ecosystems, are at particular risk.

The investigative team has also learned that two of the most common salamanders in the US-the eastern newt and the rough skinned newt- are prone to succumbing to the fungus, they are even more urgent in their cries for an immediate ban on imported salamanders.

“There is a lot at stake here if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t stop imports now to prevent the introduction of this devastating pathogen to North America”, said co-author Michelle Koo, a UC Berkeley researcher in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and associate director of AmphibiaWeb, an online database of information on amphibian biology.

Approximately 91 percent of the salamanders imported onto the continent of North America are from either the Cynops or the Paramesotriton groups.

According to Vredenburg, the threat is imminent and a policy could prove really beneficial by providing a way to avoid a significant catastrophe. This created legitimate concern as the salamander population, which was impacted by Bsal was found to be fatal in nearly all of the salamanders impacted by the illness. It’s an acute infection that horribly deems the salamanders into nothing but little masses of slime within three or four days. It is home to 48 percent of 676 recognized salamander species, which are members of nine of the 10 known families in the order Caudata.

Dr. Vredenburg points out that the Bsal fungus may actually drive salamanders into extinction and mentions the three (3) areas most at risk of infection – the Pacific Northwest, the Southeast, and the highlands in central Mexico.

Vredenburg fears that the salamanders may be on the brink of an ecological crisis. “So if major losses of salamanders occur, we could experience degradation of healthy ecosystems, which could lead to issues beyond where they occur now”, he said. Since 1999, the latter of these fungi has been responsible for wiping out more than 200 amphibian species around the world.

Based linked to new scientific studies, it is essential that often salamander imports will have to be quit due to the fact that a harmful yeast eradicates just about any salamander the item arrives communicate with to.