Does any one know if amphibian chytrid fungus disease is socially facilitated? I recently heard talks about its presence in salamander speciesat low levels in the same habitat that frogs were succumbing to it at much higher levels. Maybe chytrid gets an advantage being spread in a chorus aggregations compared to the solitary or lower density salamander breeding aggregations?
Probably, because B. salamandrivorans can be transmitted from one species to other. You should consult: Martel, et al. 2014 Recent introduction of a chytrid fungus endangers Western Paleartic salamanders. Science. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6209/630.short
There is some work on density dependent transmission of Bd in mountain yellow legged frogs. Evidence points the disease outcome being related to frog density http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2906864/pdf/pnas.200912886.pdf. But there are a lot of other things happening in the amphibian chytrid system. You have different shedding rates of amphibians skins, different immune responses, different behavior, etc that all relate to different susceptibilities of each amphibian species to each chytrid (Bd and Bsal at the moment). Here is a new paper that is useful in thinking about how members in the amphibian community affect disease outcome. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1795/20141796
Another thing to think about is while you may find Bd on salamanders at low levels, it is difficult to tease apart if the Bd is actually infecting the salamanders or just environmental debris on their skin, since there is so much Bd in the environment from the frogs.
Actually if is quite possible that BD and BS are residental infection which was always present in all parts of the world, but before was not affecting the amphibian populations.. I faced with it clearly with some captive animals. Changes of environment cause its deadly nature.
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