ApocaDocs: Frog-killer chytrid fungus was born in trade

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Posted Tue Nov 8 2011: from PNAS, via New Scientist:


	Frog-killer chytrid fungus was born in trade http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1320757978 The global amphibian trade spread the lethal chytrid fungus, which is decimating frogs around the planet, and it now looks like it may have created the disease in the first place. The team behind this finding are calling for an amphibian quarantine to help slow the disease's spread.... The best and simplest explanation is that 20th-century trade, which shipped amphibians all over the world, enabled the mating, says Farrer's supervisor Matthew Fisher. "We've got to restrict trade, or at least make sure that amphibians are not contaminated," says Fisher. One approach would be for countries to quarantine all imported amphibians and only allow them to stay if they are uninfected.

[Read more stories about: amphibian collapse, unintended consequences, sixth extinction]
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'Doc Jim says:

Take out the "fun" in "fungus," and what's left?