Chytridiomycosis caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has caused catastrophic amphibian population declines and individual suffering on a vast scale.
Chytridiomycosis represents a wildlife welfare catastrophe of extraordinary scale. Individual amphibians infected with chytrid undergo a progressive and distressing illness - abnormal skin function, neurological disruption, and ultimately cardiac arrest. Scaled across hundreds of species and billions of individual animals, the welfare implications are almost incomprehensible. The disease has spread globally through human-mediated wildlife trade and movement, making it a human-caused welfare emergency. Prevention of further spread through strict biosecurity in fieldwork, elimination of wildlife trade in susceptible species, and research into treatment and probiotic interventions are the most meaningful responses available to the welfare crisis Bd represents.