American Society for Microbiology. “Fungus causes emerging snake disease found in Eastern US.”
ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 November 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151117112047.htm>.
Researcher in the United States identified the offender responsible to a deadly skin disease in snakes from the eastern U.S. The culprit is a fungi known as the Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola. This fungus does not need the help of a host to survive, which means that even when the host population begins to decline it can still persist in the environment and harm other native species. Snakes from nine different states were diagnosed with this fungal disease and in most of the different species there is 100% mortality rate.
Bacteria and fungi are types of invasive species that can dominate and environments and its inhabitants and cause destruction, since they can reproduce easily and exponentially. As the research suggested in this article, these types of species can still thrive on in environment even when they have consumed the majority of their host species, and move on and harm other species. That is why it is very important to be aware of these organisms and their impact on the native populations.
Your title definitely caught my eye to read this article and it did not disappoint, so good job on that. This is another issue with invasive species that most people don’t think about: fungi. Even though a lot of people are scared of snakes it is still very sad that this is happening. Is there any way to curb the population of this fungus?
I agree with Lucas, it’s weird to think about how fungi can be an invasive species. Is this fungus only affecting snakes and how does it exist in nature without a host?
Thank you for commenting! And so far researchers are still testing this fungi to try to find cures for it. Potentially the fungi could harm other wild life but researchers don’t know to what degree. The fungi is able to thrive in the environment on its own.