Amphibians are among the most fragile animals that there are, and therefore more subject to the negative consequences of all those global problems that we have learned to know: climate change, the loss of the habitat, pollution … to these “classic” problems, then, you must add that Amphibians tend to be very vulnerable to diseasesand a family of viruses are spreading in the world, known as “Ranavirus“, Which is bringing more and more frequent mass to frogs and toads. Some of these amphibians, however, are showing that they are not defenseless, as a study published on Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science.
The threat of the frogvirus. The frogavirus, which belong to the family Iridoviridaethey are very “flexible” viruses (they can infect fish, amphibians and reptiles, jumping from one to the other without problems), and they are a big problem in particular for frogs. The frogus hit them when they are still at the Girini stadium, making them lethargy and subject to internal bleeding; At the moment, these viruses are responsible for a percentage between 40 and 60% of all the mass deaths of amphibians in the United States.
The study of Yale University, however, discovered at least A species that developed a counter -move: the wooden frog (Rana Sylvatica), famous because, when the snow is melted in spring and the first pools of water form, this amphibian colonizes them and reproduces very quickly. Between 2021 and 2923, the team studied the health of the Girini in 47 different ponds, some infected with the frogavirus, others “clean”.
Accelerated growth. The analysis of the girins, their stages of development and their health has revealed that wood frogs have one Strategy precise to combat the presence of frogavirus: accelerate their development in the first month of life, to reach the adult stage as soon as possible. In this way they can abandon the infected pond relatively early, and as long as they still swim in it have a immune system already developed It is more equipped to fight the infection.
The next step, the authors say, will be to understand how these frogs do to identify the presence of fridgevirus in their environment, and to regulate their growth accordingly.
