BD in Salamanders

During routine sampling of tiger salamanders in 1999 in Arizona, USA, researchers noted little black spots on the trunk of the animal. Analysis under the microscope worryingly revealed it was BD.

This was the first time the disease had been identified in a species that wasn’t a frog. Increasing evidence is now being reported that the disease is very prevalent within salamanders.

What does this mean? Unfortunately, even less is known about how salamanders are affected compared to frogs. The need for research in both frogs and salamanders is astronomical and we are at a critical stage in combating this devastating disease

Culturing BD

One way of analyzing BD  is to grow it on a petri dish filled with agar. However, the fungi is always out-competed by faster growing bacteria, and one bacterial spore will ruin a sample.

Therefore it is crucial to work aseptically (minimizing contamination)  and in labs that have high biosecurity – to prevent BD escaping outside.

By storing the the fungi at 4 degrees Celsius, you can even trick BD to produce zoospores which can be harvested and analysed as well.