Meeting Abstract
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been implicated as a major cause of amphibian population declines throughout the world. Bd is a water spread pathogen that infects frogs through their skin leading to metabolic disruption and eventually death. Due to the remote and rarely visited location of Las Piedras river and the lack of recent studies, neither amphibian species diversity nor their level of potential infection with Bd are known. Given the level of isolation we hypothesized that amphibians in this area would exhibit no indication of infection. We conducted surveys of our study site in May–June 2015. Amphibians from 10 species were hand captured, measured, photographed, swabbed and weighed, and samples were later assayed using PCR to detect the presence of Bd. Here we discuss the findings of the project, as well as overall interactions between species, body condition and Bd infection state. Finally, we discuss possible correlations with Bd distribution and habitat.
