Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungus has driven over 90 amphibian species to extinction since the 1970s in the most devastating vertebrate disease outbreak ever recorded.
Chytrid disease causes death through electrolyte imbalance and cardiac arrest — a process that is physiologically distressing in affected animals. The scale of amphibian extinction driven by this disease represents a biodiversity catastrophe without modern parallel. Individual amphibians dying of chytridiomycosis experience physiological decline over days. Prevention through trade regulation and biosecurity is far more effective than treatment of established populations.