Amphibian mortality associated with chytridiomycosis in central Eastern Europe

Abstract

The amphibian disease chytridiomycosis, caused by two pathogenic fungal species (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis – Bd; B. salamandrivorans – Bsal), is responsible for the infection of more than 1000 amphibian species worldwide (Monzon et al., 2020) and the decline of at least 500 species (Scheele et al., 2019). While the most affected continents seem to be the Americas and Australia (Olson et al., 2013; Scheele et al., 2019), massive die-offs have been reported in Europe, especially in western Europe (Bosch et al., 2001; Fisher et al., 2009; Martel et al., 2013). Bd is widespread with low prevalence in central Eastern Europe and the Balkans (Baláž et al., 2013; Vörös et al., 2018), as well as in northern Europe (Kärvemo et al., 2018; Meurling, 2019; Taugbøl et al., 2021) but no evidence of Bd-linked population declines has been recorded from these regions so far.