New online course on ranaviruses

Open to any one interested, student or non-student, the GRC is offering an online course on ranaviruses from Feb 3-April 20, 2016. Based on the curriculum it looks like it's going to be a very comprehensive course! You also don't need any prior knowledge or background in ranaviruses to take it. Kudos to the GRC for yet again making science accessible to all!!

COURSE INFORMATION

Global ranavirus reporting system is live

Very excited to report there is now a global ranavirus reporting system (GRRS) where researchers can report infection and die-offs, and it's open to the public! It's brand new so there isn't much there yet, but keep checking back to watch the GRRS grow. Here is the GRC notification about the GRRS:

"Many thanks to the scientists and programmers at the EcoHealth Alliance (Andrew Huff, Russell Horton, Nathan Breit, Amy Slagle), Dede Olson (U.S. Forest Service), and several GRC members (Jesse Brunner, Amanda Duffus, Debra Miller) for their efforts in creating this state-of-the-art online geospatial database for ranaviruses.  Unlike many mapping systems, supportive evidence can be uploaded with each case including photos and diagnostic information.  Records can be sorted and uploaded by various case attributes including host and ranavirus species, population type (captive vs. wild), and diagnostic techniques.

 

We encourage all ranavirus researchers to upload previously confirmed cases (published and unpublished) of ranavirus infection and disease by 31 December 2015.  Once the GRRS is populated, its full potential will be realized.  You can upload cases as individual records or in bulk with a CSV file.  After files are uploaded, a database manager will inspect them before they are released publically.  Records can be shared with the public fully or obfuscated.  Video and written instructions are provided on the GRRS website.  Additionally, questions and suggestions for improvement can be emailed to Amanda Duffus (aduffus@gordonstate.edu) or Jesse Brunner (jesse.brunner@wsu.edu)."

 

Click here to view the GRRS website and recent press release.

First book on ranaviruses published

I'm happy to report that Matt Gray (U Tennessee) and Greg Chinchar (U Mississippi) have compiled all current knowledge on ranaviruses into the first ever published book. Now for the icing on the cake: IT'S OPEN ACCESS!!! You can download the .pdf version here, or if you simply must have a hard copy to read by the fire or as a stocking stuffer for all your friends and family, it is available from Springer for ~$25. 


Spring egg mass counts are also complete out at Heiberg, and even though the wood frogs and spotted salamanders had a late start this year because of the late thaw, they are prolific as ever! The little egg masses still have a long road ahead of them, and must survive voracious predators like  predaceous diving beetles and green frog tadpoles. Huh? Yep - green frogs deposit their eggs here in the Northeast US in the summer, and once they hatch, the tadpoles bury themselves in the muck and keep growing throughout the winter (sometimes they will even delay metamorphosis for 3 years!). That means by the following spring they are big enough to make a tasty morsel out of little wood frog eggs. Please enjoy the following videos of a Dytiscid beetle and some yearling green frogs munching away, as goes the circle of life. Feel free to imagine a Sir David Attenborough narration, accompanied by the chorus of peeps and trillings of spring peepers in the background.

Now for a salamander breeding rundown: Spotted salamanders (like other members of the order) reproduce via spermatophores - little gelatinous "sperm packets" attached to a sticky base. Males will deposit these spermatophores on substrate, leaves, rocks, or sticks, and females will come along and take the sperm up into her cloaca (multipurpose genital and excretory opening). Thus salamander eggs are fertilized internally before they are deposited, unlike the externally fertilized frog eggs. If you take a close look at the photo below, you can see little white blobs on the leaf litter covering the pool bottom. These are spermatophores that were rejected by females and not used for fertilization. Better luck next time, guys!!

Ranavirus.org has launched!

Super exciting news if you're into collaboration (if you're not, go away.) - the GRC has launched a new website, www.ranavirus.org! There is general information on ranavirus, along with publications, who to contact, labs (both national and international) that offer ranavirus testing if you stumble across a possible outbreak, and an announcement for the 2015 Global Ranavirus Symposium. Speaking of which, I have officially submitted an abstract to participate in the Symposium this year in Gainesville, Fl, and can declare myself a charter member of the GRC. Good stuff.

TWS2014

TWS2014 is turning out to be quite the productive, collaborative conference! Of course I'm a bit biased, but it is refreshing to see talks from and meet with all the amazing people in the field of ranavirus research (without any of them saying "Is that like Bd?" - can I get an "amen" from the RV people!).  On a related note, for all things ranavirus...if I haven't already posted this...check out the Global Ranavirus Consortium for updates and publication lists. Dr. Matthew Gray, GRC director, U Tennessee faculty member & coordinator of the UT Wetlands Program has done a great job with collaborators organizing the GRC site and publishing the first ever book on ranavirus, which we're all SUPER excited about. Look for the book coming out early 2015.
I have also met lots of other students/researchers working on some great ranavirus monitoring projects around the country, and will give a shout out to a very motivated undergrad, Brandon Perrone, working with Dr. Bridgette Hagerty at York College in PA. They are monitoring a local vernal pool for RV prevalence in both tadpoles and adults, and projects like this are exactly what we need to develop a deeper understanding of where and when these outbreaks hit.

The Wildlife Society Conference 2014

The ARVP will be making its national conference debut at TWS 2014! Check out the conference at wildlifesociety.org. I will be presenting a poster at the student research in progress poster session entitled "Environmental factors affecting ranavirus prevalence among aquatic-breeding amphibians in natural and constructed ponds". New addition to poster: preliminary results!!! Follow me on twitter @codenameribbit for a play-by-play at the conference.

First 2014 die-off observed

First, to start off on a high note before the misery soon to follow, let me show you some new metamorphs! These cute little wood frogs are starting to emerge from the pools, and they can be found around Heiberg in various sizes and states of metamorphosis. Many things can affect the size of newly morphed frogs, including genetics, egg size, population density, competition, food availability, and cannibalism (yes, there are tadpole cannibals!). For a good basic read on the subject (Berven & Chadra 1988), click here. 

One pre-existing pool was surrounded by some of the tiniest emerging wood frogs I've ever seen! This one, at Gosner stage 45, was only about 7mm long.

This metamorph from a different site is nearly twice the body length (snout-vent) as the one above, but at Gosner stage 43-44 is not as far along in development.

Now for the doom and gloom. The artificial vernal pools in Heiberg Forest were constructed in groups of 1, 3, or 9 pools using a hexagonal grid to separate the groupings. Hexagon 5, the site of die-offs observed in previous years, has experienced yet another wood frog die-off beginning July 10 of this year. At least 3 of the 9 pools were affected. Most wood frog tadpoles had already died and begun decomposing, and those sampled alive were lethargic, swimming erratically, and/or had visible signs of ranavirus including sloughing skin, edema (swelling), and subcutaneous hemorrhaging. Although die-offs can happen very rapidly and are easily missed if diseased individuals die and decompose quickly, this appears to be the first one this year.

This wood frog tadpole clearly shows signs of edema. Poor little thing looked like a balloon compared to its poolmates.

Internal hemorrhaging can be seen in the lower abdomen

Mobile lab

The real side of fieldwork: hunched in the back of my Rav4 in 90 deg F processing samples while dodging mosquitos. Hungry little ****ers. Who would ever want a desk job!?

Welcome field assistants!!

The fieldwork is moving along efficiently tanks to our two field assistants: ESF senior Laura Labarge and ESF grad Logan Osterhoudt. Between sampling and hauling equipment around the woods, we couldn't do this without them!

ESF senior Laura Labarge having an amazing time pipe sampling

ESF grad Logan Osterhoudt enjoying some wonderful summer weather

Laura making a new friend (American Toad, Anaxyrus Americanus)

Other forest critters hang out by the pools (Eastern newt, juvenile eft stage, Notopthalamus viridescens)

My selfie with an adult Eastern newt

An adult green frog (Lithobates clamitans) hitching a ride on the sampling net

Field season begins!

The 2014 egg mass counts are complete, and it looks like it's going to be a productive year for wood frogs and spotted salamanders! Most of the wood frogs have hatched over the past few weeks, but the salamander embryos are still developing. The two egg masses can generally be distinguished by their shape and size. Wood frog egg masses are usually located at or near the surface, with black embryos visible inside the mass. Spotted salamanders usually attach their egg masses (which are typically smaller than wood frogs') to submerged vegetation and sticks. The salamander egg masses can also be identified by an outer jelly-like coating around the entire mass. Toads also lay their eggs in vernal pools in long strands.
 
Photo credits: T. Youker

Strand-like egg mass of the American toad (Anaxyrus americanus)

Spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) egg mass, with visible outer jelly coating

Wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) egg mass

Egg masses often appear greenish due to the growth of a symbiotic algae,  Oophila amblystomatis. This algae is thought to aid in the circulation of oxygen to the developing embryos. Once the eggs hatch, emerging tadpoles feed on the remaining yolks, egg sacs, and algae. Below is a video of wood frog tadpoles hatching in one of the open field pools.

 

Wood frog tadpoles munching on their empty, algae-covered egg mass

Funding for The ARP

I am proud to say the Amphibian Ranavirus Project now has grant support from two sources: The SUNY ESF Maurice Alexander Wetland Graduate Award, and Western New York Herpetological Society Marv Aures/Bob Krantz Award. These awards will fund our summer field research this year, anticipated to begin with egg mass counts next month!

Some amphibian disease awareness

Amphibian diseases flow through animal trade 

Year of the Salamander

The Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and Wildlife Society have designated 2014 as "Year of the Salamander"! Visit parcplace.org and read State of the Salamander

Infectious Disease Symposium Update

Well, the SUNY ESF & SUNY Upstate Infectious Disease Symposium: From Lab to Landscape was a great success! Drs. Sadie Ryan and Anna Stewart Ibarra did a fantastic job organizing, and gave interesting talks on their innovative research with malaria and dengue fever. Recent publications on these topics can be found here and here. Click here for a list of other speakers and topics. I am also proud to say that The Amphibian Ranavirus Project poster (below)  received a 1st place award at the symposium poster session, with another lab member, Michael Jones, receiving a 3rd place award for his poster presenting his research with the Emerald Ash Borer. Molecular work with 2011 and 2012 samples continues, and I am hoping to have some prevalence results by the start of this field season, to be presented at the 2014 Northeast Fish and Wildlife Conference in Portland, Maine.

Infectious Disease Symposium at SUNY ESF

The Amphibian Ranavirus Project is about to debut its first poster! I will be presenting at the SUNY ESF & SUNY Upstate Medical U Infectious Disease Symposium "From Lab to Lanscape: Integrated Infectious Disease Research", taking place at the SUNY ESF Gateway Building Jan 24 from 8-5. Details can be found HERE.

Submitted abstract:

Emerging infectious diseases have been implicated as contributing factors to recent amphibian population declines. One such disease reaching pandemic status is ranavirus, caused by a group of viruses documented in fish, reptile, and amphibian species on five continents. Mortality rates exceed 90% at the larval stage of many aquatic-breeding amphibian species, including the common frog (Rana temporaria) in the UK, tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) in Western US, and wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) in Northeastern US.

            As part of a long-term wetland restoration ecological study beginning in 2010, The Upper Susquehanna Coalition in collaboration with SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry created a network of 71 hydrologically isolated pools incorporating four pre-existing pools at Svend O. Heiberg Memorial Forest in Tully, New York. One target species of the restoration, the wood frog, experienced local die-offs of tadpoles in three pond sites in 2011, and preliminary testing using polymerase chain reaction assay verified the presence of ranavirus in all three sites. Two die-offs of wood frog and green frog tadpoles have since been observed in other sites, with ranavirus confirmation pending.

            To identify environmental and organismal factors influencing susceptibility to ranaviral infection at these sites, we are collecting ongoing data on tadpole populations, environmental conditions, water quality, and ranavirus prevalence both during and between epidemics. We will use general linear models to determine which biotic and/or abiotic variables are most influential in ranavirus outbreaks, to develop a predictive model that can be applied to other landscapes. This will be especially applicable to future wetland restoration endeavors, as the Heiberg system incorporates both natural and constructed ponds and offers a unique opportunity to comparatively analyze disease outbreaks in each.

 

Prep for the 2014 field season is underway!

I am proud to say I am now officially a Master's student, and the Ranavirus Project is back in full swing out of The Ryan Lab at SUNY ESF: http://sadieryan.weebly.com

Modeling disease transmission is a tricky business, and there are literally hundreds of input variables. I will be focusing on a few major factors, one being temperature. Any #SciFund Ranavirus Project supporters out there should be pleased to know that a portion of your support allowed us to buy these nifty little things:

This is an iButton, and when coated with waterproof plastic and submerged in a pool it will log temperature data every 3 hours for up to 7 months. Good stuff.

Stay tuned, pictures and reports from the field coming up!

-Tess

End of field season

Wood frog sampling for 2012 has come to a close, and thanks to Jim I have a few hundred more samples to process! :)

As of now I am working full time so the lab work is horribly slow, but with some potential extra hands in the lab things should be up and running soon.

Pond 8 wood frog update

It is with a heavy heart that i report the five wood frog tadpoles from pool 8 have all died over a period of three days. They were all in Gosner stages 42-44. Cause of death yet to be determined...

Way to go!

THANK YOU to everyone who helped fund The Amphibian Ranavirus Project for success in the #SciFund challenge! We are fully funded with three days still left, and can move forward with some pretty awesome research! Thank you to week 3 fuelers Christine Brant, Megan Knight, Jimmy McCarthy, Heather Holmes, Lee Figueroa, Mike Simonovich, Jackie Daemion, Sharon Baisley, Tom Beauvais, and Jacqueline Lu!

Field update

The 2013 field season is underway, with most of this year's wood frog clutches hatched! Congrats to all the little wood frogs that managed to escape last year's green frog tadpoles. For those who don't know, green frog tadpoles overwinter in the ponds that don't dry out during any given year, and by the time next year's wood frog egg masses are deposited, the green frogs have grown into some massively large tadpoles with equally large appetites! Wood frog eggs are a perfectly bite-sized nutritionally rich meal for these predators.

However, last week during a routine water level check, Jim found a bunch of dead, decomposing green frog tadpoles and two adult green frogs in one of the forest pools. This pool was extremely healthy and productive last year, and located far away from any of the ranavirus (RV) infected pools.  Furthermore, it is very early in the season to be seeing anything like this yet! The carcasses were too decomposed for RV sampling and testing, so this week I went out and collected 5 live green frog tadpoles to test for RV.  If it's there, that means these guys survived the outbreak and could provide evidence for green frogs as vectors.

Here's a video of the pool, Pond 8A. This is one of the isolated pools - the video starts at the trail turnoff, about 100 meters from the service road leading to the forest pools. This is just to illustrate how isolated this pool is, and to give a sense of our day-to-day field treks (this is one of the short ones). I am no videographer and the beginning is very Blair Witch-y, so if you get motion sick I might suggest skipping to 1:15. At about 1:28-1:34 you can get a good sense of the canopy cover for this time of year. This is one of the pools that is in at least partial sun all season. at 1:36 keep an eye out at the bottom of the screen for a darting green frog tadpole. It stops toward the middle of the screen, so you should still be able to see it and get a sense of how big it is. At this stage they are about 6-8 cm (~2.5-3 in) long - WAY bigger than the 1-1.5 cm wood frog tadpoles in this pond.

Speaking of wood frogs, I found some of those alive too! This means if there was a RV outbreak, they either survived with a sub-clinical infection or are still at such an early development stage that they are not yet susceptible due to a changing immune system. I captured five of them via dip-netting, and am raising them in the lab until they are big enough to test for RV. This way I can track their development stages as they grow and answer a couple questions: 1) Are they already infected, but not yet susceptible? If so, then they may die of RV once they reach a certain stage. 2) Did they manage to avoid becoming infected? They are too far along to have still been embryos when the outbreak occurred, so maybe the pool sustained a low enough viral load that they weren't infected. 3) Did they become infected, but for some reason these individuals are more resistant? If so, they may survive until metamorphosis but still test positive for RV.  Stay tuned for the start of sampling next week, including a demonstration of the pipe sampling technique.