Chytridiomycosis caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has devastated amphibian populations worldwide, causing mass mortalities with significant welfare and extinction implications.
Chytridiomycosis causes mass mortality events in wild amphibian populations that involve immense acute suffering. Frogs dying from chytrid infection experience electrolyte disruption, lethargy, and ultimately cardiac failure over a period of days to weeks. The scale of mortality in affected populations - sometimes 80-100% within a short period - makes this one of the most significant welfare events affecting wild vertebrates in modern times. Conservation efforts including captive breeding, probiotic bioaugmentation, and habitat temperature management that reduces fungal growth are simultaneously conservation and welfare interventions.