Tadpoles in danger; infectious disease found in a diverse range of frog

Lead author of the study and a biologist at the Exeter University inside Devon, United Kingdom, Thomas Richards said that frogs are already facing extinction all over the globe. The team of scientists measured the seriousness of the disease in only three continents, but researchers believe that the tadpole disease could affect the creatures regardless of where they are located.

The researchers (from University of Exeter and the Natural History Museum) tested the samples using molecular techniques and concluded that the infectious agent is a distant relative of Perkinsea parasite (common in aquatic animals and algae). This new discovery can help biologists to gain more information about the causes of declining frog populations occurring on a global scale.

The result? Massive declines in frog populations worldwide, which is a major concern to scientists, who believe that this infection is likely the cause. The microbes have been found in the livers of tadpoles taken from six different countries and three continents, writes Kate Kelland for Live Mint. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Journal. They are excellent contributors to their ecosystems that might soon be gone. Richards says that infectious diseases are one of the main reasons why frogs have to suffer.

Scientists will need to study the microbe, which is loosely linked to a species of oyster parasites, and figure out how it is able to infiltrate the livers of tadpoles throughout a wide range of environments. They think it is part of what had been an unidentified microbial group that infects the tadpole’s liver. In 2008, around 32 percent of species of frogs were named as either threatened or extinct, while around 42 percent were identified in sharp decline.

Amphibians, like frogs, are supposed to be the most endangered groups of animals in the world.

This high extinction rate was starting to match the decline & mass extinction of dinosaurs from so long ago.