Meeting Abstract

P3.111  Monday, Jan. 6 15:30  Prevalence of Ranavirus in Contaminated and Uncontaminated Sites on the Savannah River Site WINZELER, M.E.*; LANCE, S.L.; LOVE, C.N.; NUNZIATA, S.O.; SCOTT, D.E.; Savannah River Ecology Lab, Univ. of Georgia, Aiken, SC; Savannah River Ecology Lab, Univ. of Georgia, Aiken, SC; Savannah River Ecology Lab, Univ. of Georgia, Aiken, SC; Dept. of Biology, Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY; Savannah River Ecology Lab, Univ. of Georgia, Aiken, SC meganwinzeler@gmail.com

A variety of natural and anthropogenic stressors have been hypothesized to increase the emergence of ranaviruses in amphibians via increased host susceptibility. On the Savannah River Site (SRS), multiple heavy metal contaminants are mitigated through retention wetlands used by native amphibians for breeding and habitat. However, no studies to date have explicitly examined the linkages between metal contaminants and the disease ecology of ranavirus in amphibians. We sampled adult and larval amphibians from three contaminated and two reference wetlands on the SRS for Ranavirus infection. We examined 215 individual representing 4 frog and 1 toad species. Ranavirus was not detected in the 80 samples collected from uncontaminated reference sites. There was also no difference at contaminated sites versus uncontaminated sites (3%). Nonetheless, our preliminary data indicated that while Ranavirus occurred at low prevalence on the site, it was only detected at heavy-metal contaminated wetlands. In total, Ranavirus was found in 2 species at contaminated sites on the SRS.