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.