Journal
DISEASES OF AQUATIC ORGANISMS
Volume 102, Issue 3, Pages 187-+Publisher
INTER-RESEARCH
DOI: 10.3354/dao02557
Keywords
Amphibian chytrid fungus; Real time PCR; Africa; PCR inhibition
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Funding
- Percy Sladen Memorial Grant of the Linnean Society
- Erasmus Darwin Barlow Grant from the Zoological Society of London
- Small Ecological Project Grant from the British Ecological Society
- Royal Zoological Society of Scotland
- Natural History Museum, London
- Institute of Zoology, London
- German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
- Alexander Koenig Stiftung, Bonn
- Conservation International
- Rufford Small Grants
- Elsa-Neumann-scholarship
- DAAD
- MfN funds
- German Science Foundation [DFG PL 213/6-1]
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Amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been hypothesised to be an indigenous parasite of African amphibians. In Cameroon, however, previous surveys in one region (in the northwest) failed to detect this pathogen, despite the earliest African Bd having been recorded from a frog in eastern Cameroon, plus one recent record in the far southeast. To reconcile these contrasting results, we present survey data from 12 localities across 6 regions of Cameroon from anurans (n = 1052) and caecilians (n = 85) of ca. 108 species. Bd was detected in 124 amphibian hosts at 7 localities, including Mt. Oku, Mt. Cameroon, Mt. Manengouba and lowland localities in the centre and west of the country. None of the hosts were observed dead or dying. Infected amphibian hosts were not detected in other localities in the south and eastern rainforest belt. Infection occurred in both anurans and caecilians, making this the first reported case of infection in the latter order (Gymnophiona) of amphibians. There was no significant difference between prevalence and infection intensity in frogs and caecilians. We highlight the importance of taking into account the inhibition of diagnostic qPCR in studies on Bd, based on all Bd-positive hosts being undetected when screened without bovine serum albumin in the qPCR mix. The status of Bd as an indigenous, cosmopolitan amphibian parasite in Africa, including Cameroon, is supported by this work. Isolating and sequencing strains of Bd from Cameroon should now be a priority. Longitudinal host population monitoring will be required to determine the effects, if any, of the infection on amphibians in Cameroon.
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