Abstract

GARCIA FERIA, Luis Manuel; BROUSSET, Dulce María  and  CERVANTES OLIVARES, Roberto Arnulfo. Determinant abiotic and biotic factors for the presence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in Mexican amphibians. Acta Zool. Mex [online]. 2019, vol.35, e3502066.  Epub Nov 29, 2019. ISSN 2448-8445.  https://doi.org/10.21829/azm.2019.3502066.

We evaluated the presence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in 13 Mexican amphibians associated to abiotic and biotic factors as a species distribution model by a classification and regression tree (CART). Chytrid fungus was diagnosed from cutaneous swabs in adults’ amphibians and oral swabs of tadpoles by nested PCR for a 300bp rRNA fragment. Specimens were sampled in seven vegetation types, during dry and rainy seasons. The chytrid fungus was detected in Charadrayla taeniopus and Leptodactylus fragilis, species that were not previously recorded with the fungus; the Bd also was confirmed on amphibians that inhabit from perennial rainforest at southeastern Mexico. According to CARTs, host species and precipitation were the most important factor to Bd occurrence but their combination with other variables as development stage, environmental temperature, season, vegetation type and aquatic life index have influence on its presence. In addition, the tadpoles had 1.52 times more prevalence of Bd than adults, and that tadpoles from two amphibian species studied could be reservoirs potentially. Although no amphibian showed clinical signs of chytridiomycosis, our findings indicate that the presence and persistence of Bd may be related with species susceptibility or resistance and interaction of diverse abiotic and biotic factors.

Keywords : Seasonality; nested PCR; tadpoles; aquatic life index; Specie Distribution Model; CART.

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