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(1/N) Exactly 7 years ago, I arrived in Madagascar to perform my biggest rapid response #frog conservation project. A few months earlier, I obtained the 1st confirmed evidence of amphibian #chytrid fungus on the island nation https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2014/03/31/defending-madagascars-frogs-from-invading-fungus/ #SciComm @InsideNatGeo @NatGeo
During my PhD at @jcu, I wanted to discover how amphibian #chytrid fungus was able to spread around the globe so easily & why this #wildlife pandemic still rages today, 20+ years after discovery. Understanding the situation in #Madagascar was a top goal for several reasons: (2/N)
My top 2 reasons: 1) Despite many years of field surveillance in #Madagascar, the rapid response network designed to provide early warning for #chytrid's arrival had not yet confirmed it's presence & 2) Hundreds of species of #MadagascarFrogs (see @MarkScherz) are endemic! (3/N)
I wanted to learn *how* #Madagascar escaped #chytrid exposure & use this knowledge to protect #frogs from disease in other countries too. But first, I had assume I was wrong & chytrid was already there. Then, I "accidentally" found it: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089660 #WildlifeTrade (4/N)
Amphibians aren't commercially imported into #Madagascar but I assumed an outbreak of #chytrid would still somehow occur. This is what happened in Montserrat (infected frog may have arrived in bananas?) & the mountain chicken #frog (Leptodactylus fallax) nearly went extinct (5/N)
That’s when my idea emerged. Combining my background in amphibian biology, #wildlife #disease, & international #WildlifeTrade, I saw an opportunity to complement traditional field surveillance and help boost detection & #conservation response efforts https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089660 (6/N)
Millions of live #frogs are shipped globally annually. Thousands are #MadagascarFrogs. So I created a #WildlifeTrade study to explore this activity as a vehicle of disease spread (bad for conservation?) & tool for pathogen discovery (good for #conservation?) #chytrid #SciComm 7/N
I sampled 565 frogs for #chytrid that were exported from #Madagascar. In my 1st attempt to detect this pathogen, 3 #frogs tested positive. I was shocked, scared, and confused. What did it mean? https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089660 #ConservationOptimism #WildlifeTrade #ScienceTwitter (8/N)
To me, it meant that globalization has made the world so interconnected through trade & travel that pathogens can easily spread in unexpected ways. Studying #WildlifeTrade can sometimes help locate pathogens faster & provide data to inform #science on the ground #OneHealth (9/N)
