A final report was produced for this SSP project.
The general objectives to this study were threefold, as follows:
1. To determine the environmental presence and abundance of Bden in headwater regions of river systems in the Southeastern United States through water samples evaluated for the presence of environmental DNA (eDNA).
2. To determine the presence of Bden infection in fauna of these headwater regions, including larval and adult amphibians as well as other potential reservoirs of infection.
3. To determine whether any association exists between water flow rate and associated stream parameters in headwater systems versus the presence/prevalence of Bden both in the environment and infecting amphibian host species.
During the course of this investigation, reports of the emerging chytrid pathogen of salamanders (Bsal) prompted the development of a fourth objective, as follows.
4. To utilize remaining extracted DNA from animal swab samples to screen for the presence of Bsal in these same headwater regions.
Across the ten watershed regions investigated in the course of this study, Batrachocytrium dendrobatidis (Bden) was only identified in one of these, the Davidson River watershed area of southwestern North Carolina.
