Beyond amphibian declines: Promising directions in understanding the role of disease

Abstract/Summary

Introduction (excerpt)to disease symposium publication following the 6th World Congress of Herpetology in Manaus: The goal of the symposium, Amphibian disease: Where do we go from here?, was to foster discussion of “what comes next?” in the efforts of the global scientific community to combat amphibian decline, specifically in the arena of disease. The symposium included presentations from Australia, Denmark, Ecuador, Spain, Kenya and the United States. Topics ranged from laboratory studies to landscape-scale field studies. Although the debate on “what comes next” remains in progress, the symposium prompted discussion and increased international collaborations – including subsequent workshops in Australia and Switzerland. The series of papers from this symposium, featured in this issue, do not provide a roadmap of what comes next, but illustrate the diverse nature of research into amphibian diseases and highlight some of the promising directions being pursued to understand the effects of disease on amphibian populations