Scientists join fight against frog diseases

CSIRO Livestock Industries’ Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, the Frog Decline Reversal Project, Inc’s (FDR project) Cairns Frog Hospital, Sydney’s Taronga Zoo and James Cook University (JCU), will combine their research expertise and technologies to diagnose new frog diseases detected recently by the FDR project.

Funded by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Water Resources, the three-year Amphibian Disease Project was initiated by FDR Project founder, Deborah Pergolotti.

“Since we began rescue and rehabilitation activities in 1998, we have discovered several new and undescribed disease issues in Far North Queensland amphibians including high levels of cancer, and die-offs and malformations in frogs and cane toads,” Ms Pergolotti said.

According to AAHL’s principal frog researcher, Dr Alex Hyatt, these diseases, or syndromes, have never been seen before and may present a threat to the long-term survival of native frogs.

“Frogs with specific syndromes will be screened by veterinary pathologists from AAHL, the JCU’s Anton Breinl Centre and Taronga Zoo’s Australian Registry of Wildlife Health (ARWH) to identify what pathogens are present, if they are infectious, and which are responsible for death and deformity,” Dr Hyatt said.

JCU’s Professor Rick Speare said the Project’s integration of specialist skills and equipment will avoid unnecessary duplication and should provide a cost-effective procedure for identifying new frog diseases.

To initiate a record of diagnostic pathological results for these diseases, a Diagnostic Imaging Network System (DINS) – developed at AAHL in collaboration with Arcitecta Pty Ltd – will transfer images to a central database accessible to veterinary pathologists across Australia.

According to ARWH curator, Dr Karrie Rose, there are currently no efficient interactive databases like DINS in operation.  

“Collectively the project will pioneer a new national way of handling diseases from the wild which, if proven successful, could be used as a model to initiate a broader diagnostic network in Australia for other wildlife,” Dr Rose said. 

Dr Hyatt said the new amphibian syndromes emerging in Far North Queensland are not the first diseases to have threatened Australia’s frog populations. “In the late 1990s, Australian scientists discovered a debilitating frog fungus called Chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis), which has been responsible for species extinctions and local population losses around the globe. Our experience with the Chytrid fungus taught us that if you find a disease or virus early enough you have a much better chance of controlling it,” he said.

A picture of a litoria xanthomera frog (one of the species of native tree frogs found in Far North Queensland which could be threatened by a number of frog diseases emerging in the regionthe) is available from:  http://www.scienceimage.csiro.au/mediarelease/mr07-121.html.