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Retrospective Survey of Museum Specimens Reveals Historically Widespread Presence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in China

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Abstract

Chytridiomycosis, caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has been implicated in amphibian population declines worldwide. However, no amphibian declines or extinctions associated with Bd have been reported in Asia. To investigate the history of this pathogen in China, we examined 1,007 museum-preserved amphibian specimens of 80 species collected between 1933 and 2009. Bd was detected in 60 individuals (6.0%), with the earliest case of Bd infection occurring in one specimen of Bufo gargarizans and two Fejervarya limnocharis, all collected in 1933 from Chongqing, southwest China. Although mainly detected in non-threatened native amphibians, Bd was also found in four endangered species. We report the first evidence of Bd for Taiwan and the first detection of Bd in the critically endangered Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus). Bd appears to have been present at a low rate of infection since at least the 1930s in China, and no significant differences in prevalence were detected between decades or provinces, suggesting that a historical steady endemic relationship between Bd and Chinese amphibians has occurred. Our results add new insights on the global emergence of Bd and suggest that this pathogen has been more widely distributed in the last century than previously believed.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Enqi Ye of the National Zoological Museum (Beijing) and Zhiqing Xu of the Chongqing Museum of Natural History (Chongqing) for assistance with sampling. We are also grateful to Kris Murray and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the draft of the manuscript. This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (code: 31172111, 31200416) and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (code: 5132026).

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  1. Changming Bai

    Present address: Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, People’s Republic of China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China

    Wei Zhu, Changming Bai, Supen Wang, Xianping Li, Xuan Liu & Yiming Li

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Shijingshan, Beijing, 100049, China

    Wei Zhu, Changming Bai, Supen Wang & Xianping Li

  3. Facultad de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Andres Bello, Republica 252, Santiago, 8370251, Chile

    Claudio Soto-Azat

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  1. Wei Zhu
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Correspondence to Yiming Li.

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Wei Zhu, Changming Bai, and Supen Wang contributed equally to this article.

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Zhu, W., Bai, C., Wang, S. et al. Retrospective Survey of Museum Specimens Reveals Historically Widespread Presence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in China. EcoHealth 11, 241–250 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-013-0894-7

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