Abstract
Global wildlife trade exacerbates the spread of nonindigenous species. Pathogens also move with hosts through trade and often are released into naïve populations with unpredictable outcomes. Amphibians are moved commercially for pets, food, bait, and biomedicine, and are an excellent model for studying how wildlife trade relates to pathogen pollution. Ranaviruses are amphibian pathogens associated with annual population die-offs; multiple strains of tiger salamander ranaviruses move through the bait trade in the western United States. Ranaviruses infect amphibians, reptiles, and fish and are of additional concern because they can switch hosts. Tiger salamanders are used as live bait for freshwater fishing and are a potential source for ranaviruses switching hosts from amphibians to fish. We experimentally injected largemouth bass with a bait trade tiger salamander ranavirus. Largemouth bass became infected but exhibited no signs of disease or mortality. Amphibian bait ranaviruses have the potential to switch hosts to infect fish, but fish may act as dead-end hosts or nonsymptomatic carriers, potentially spreading infection as a result of trade.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Ahne W, Bremont M, Hedrick RP, Hyatt AD, Whittington RJ (1997) Iridoviruses associated with epizootic haematopoietic necrosis (EHN) in aquaculture. World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology 13:367-373.
Cunningham AA, Daszak P, Rodriguez J (2003) Pathogen pollution: defining a parasitological threat to biodiversity conservation. The Journal of Parasitology 89:S78-S83.
Daszak P, Cunningham AA, Hyatt AD (2000) Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife: threats to biodiversity and human health. Science 287:443-449.
Durborow RM, Mitchell AJ, Crosby MD (1998) Ich (white spot disease). Southern Regional Aquaculture Center Publications 476:1-6.
Hedrick RP, McDowell TS (1995) Properties of iridoviruses from ornamental fish. Veterinary Research 26:423-427.
Hoffman G (1999) Chemotherapy and prophylaxis of parasitic diseases of fish. In: Meyer FM, Mitchell AJ (eds), Parasites of North American Freshwater Fishes. Ithaca New York, Cornell University Press, pp 409-414.
Jancovich JK, Davidson EW, Parameswaran N, Mao J, Chinchar VG, Collins JP, Jacobs BL, Storfer A (2005) Evidence for emergence of an amphibian iridoviral disease because of human-enhanced spread. Molecular Ecology 14:213-224.
Karesh WB, Cook RA, Bennett EL, Newcomb J (2005) Wildlife trade and global disease emergence. Emerging Infectious Diseases 11:1000-1002.
Kolar C, Lodge D (2001) Progress in invasion biology: predicting invaders. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 16:199-204.
Mao J, Green DE, Fellers G, Chinchar VG (1999) Molecular characterization of iridoviruses isolated from sympatric amphibians and fish. Virus Research 63:45-52.
Mao JH, Hedrick RP, Chinchar VG (1997) Molecular characterization, sequence analysis, and taxonomic position of newly isolated fish iridoviruses. Virology 229:212-220.
Moody NJG, Owens L (1994) Experimental demonstration of the pathogenicity of a frog virus, bohle iridovirus, for a fish species, Barramundi-Lates-Calcarifer. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 18:95-102.
Picco AM, Collins JP (2008) Amphibian commerce as a likely source of pathogen pollution. Conservation Biology 22:1582-1589.
Schloegel LM, Picco AM, Kilpatrick AM, Davies AJ, Hyatt AD, Daszak P (2009) Magnitude of the U.S. trade in amphibians and presence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and ranavirus infection in imported North American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana). Biological Conservation 142:1420-1426.
Smith, KF, Behrens M, Schloegel LM, Marano N, Burgiel S, Daszak P (2009) Reducing the risks of the wildlife trade. Science 324:594-595.
Storfer A, Alfaro M, Ridenhour B, Jancovich JK, Mech SG, Parris MJ, Collins JP (2007) Phylogenetic concordance analysis shows an emerging pathogen is novel and endemic. Ecology Letters 10:1075-1083.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (2007) Fish Likely Infected with Deadly Virus Found in Little Lake Butte des Morts; Menasha Lock Closed; Public Asked to Take Steps to Stop the Spread, p 2
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by an NSF IRCEB (Integrated Research Challenges in Environmental Biology) grant # DEB 0213851 to JC and 22 collaborators, an Arizona Game and Fish Heritage Grant to JC and AP, and a Department of Graduate Studies Dissertation Fellowship to AP. All work was completed at Arizona State University under IACUC protocol 03-683R. We thank Trent Bollinger for the histological analyses, staff at Bubbling Ponds Fish Hatchery for their field assistance, various people at ASU for assistance with the fish experiment, and James Jancovich and Amy Greer for help with cell culture. We also thank A. Kinzig, T. Dowling, S. Faeth, and L. Gerber, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Picco, A.M., Karam, A.P. & Collins, J.P. Pathogen Host Switching in Commercial Trade with Management Recommendations. EcoHealth 7, 252–256 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-010-0310-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-010-0310-5