Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class on Earth. The chytrid fungus pandemic and habitat loss are causing catastrophic population collapses with massive individual welfare implications.
Amphibian population collapse causes individual welfare harm at enormous scale. Chytridiomycosis is a painful disease causing skin dysfunction, electrolyte imbalance and death by cardiac arrest in affected animals. Wild frogs and salamanders dying from Bd experience what is effectively slow-onset suffocation through their skin. While conservation efforts focus rightly on species preservation, the welfare dimension of mass disease mortality deserves acknowledgement. Ex-situ conservation programmes that maintain disease-free captive populations require welfare standards for housing, enrichment and veterinary care. The international wildlife trade that spread chytrid globally continues to pose disease transmission risks for new regions and requires stronger biosecurity regulation.