Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London W21PG, UK.
Mol Ecol. 2009 Dec;18(23):4731-3. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04385.x.
The global emergence of the amphibian chytrid pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is one of the most compelling, and troubling, examples of a panzootic. Only discovered in 1998, Bd is now recognized as a proximate driver of global declines in amphibian diversity and is now widely acknowledged as a key threatening process for this ancient class of vertebrates. Moreover, Bd has become a member of a small group of highly virulent multihost pathogens that are known to have had effects on entire vertebrate communities and the ecosystem-level effects of Bd-driven amphibian declines are starting to emerge as a consequence of regional decreases in amphibian diversity. Despite the speed at which this species of aquatic chytrid has become a focus of research efforts, major questions still exist about where Bd originated, how it spreads, where it occurs and what are Bd's effects on populations and species inhabiting different regions and biomes. In this issue, Goka et al. (2009) make an important contribution by publishing the first nationwide surveillance for Bd in Asia. Although previous data had suggested that amphibians in Asia are largely uninfected by Bd, these surveys were limited in their extent and few firm conclusions could be drawn about the true extent of infection. Goka et al. herein describe a systematic surveillance of Japan for both native and exotic species in the wild, as well as amphibians housed in captivity, using a Bd-specific nested PCR reaction on a sample of over 2600 amphibians. Their results show that Bd is widely prevalent in native species across Japan in at least three of the islands that make up the archipelago, proving for the first time that Asia harbours Bd.
两栖动物壶菌病病原体（Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis，Bd）在全球范围内的出现是最引人关注和令人困扰的泛生虫病之一。该病原体直到 1998 年才被发现，现在被认为是导致全球两栖动物多样性下降的主要驱动因素，并且被广泛认为是这一古老脊椎动物类群的关键威胁过程。此外，Bd 已成为一小部分高毒性多宿主病原体中的一员，这些病原体已知对整个脊椎动物群落产生了影响，而 Bd 导致的两栖动物下降的生态系统层面的影响也开始显现，这是由于区域内两栖动物多样性减少所致。尽管这种水生壶菌的传播速度如此之快，已成为研究工作的重点，但关于 Bd 的起源、传播方式、发生地点以及它对不同地区和生物群落中种群和物种的影响等方面仍存在重大问题。在本期中，Goka 等人（2009）通过发表亚洲地区首例 Bd 全国范围监测报告做出了重要贡献。尽管之前的数据表明亚洲的两栖动物受 Bd 感染的程度较低，但这些调查的范围有限，因此无法对感染的真实程度得出确切结论。Goka 等人在此描述了对日本本土和外来物种的野外以及圈养两栖动物进行的系统监测，方法是对超过 2600 只两栖动物样本进行 Bd 特异性嵌套 PCR 反应。他们的结果表明，Bd 在日本至少三个岛屿的本土物种中广泛流行，这证明亚洲确实存在 Bd。
