Chytridiomycosis has caused the most catastrophic loss of vertebrate biodiversity ever recorded - the welfare of affected wild amphibians and captive insurance populations requires urgent attention.
Chytrid disease welfare operates at both individual and population scales. Individual frogs dying from chytridiomycosis experience a prolonged disease process involving electrolyte disruption and skin dysfunction before death. At the population scale, species extinctions caused by chytrid represent the permanent loss of all welfare consideration for those animals - an ultimate welfare harm. Captive insurance colonies protect against this extinction but face their own welfare challenges in maintaining animals appropriately. The most urgent welfare interventions combine biosecurity to prevent disease spread to new regions with probiotic and biocontrol research for affected populations.