Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class on Earth, facing population collapse from chytrid fungus, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change with profound welfare and ecological consequences.
Amphibian welfare in the context of chytrid disease is a harrowing example of welfare harm at population scale. Chytrid fungus disrupts the ability of amphibians to regulate electrolyte balance through their skin, causing fatal cardiac arrest. The manner of death is prolonged and affects the entire skin surface. The scale of these deaths — entire populations eliminated across continents — represents one of the largest disease-driven welfare catastrophes in recorded history for any animal group. Conservation interventions including captive assurance colonies and bioaugmentation with protective bacteria address population persistence but the welfare of individual animals dying in chytrid pandemics represents enormous, largely unacknowledged suffering.