How have global food and pet trade networks helped spread amphibian chytridiomycosis?

Amphibian chytridiomycosis is a pandemic disease caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). While the fungus likely originated in the Korean peninsula, it was disseminated globally through international food and pet trade networks.1

These commercial activities facilitate the long-distance movement of infected amphibians, which act as vectors for the pathogen. Once introduced into a new environment, the fungus spreads rapidly among local populations via free-swimming zoospores. The resulting outbreaks have caused significant population declines and extinctions, threatening global biodiversity and triggering negative trophic cascade effects in ecosystems where amphibians serve as essential prey.1

The global trade in wildlife must be managed with rigorous biosecurity measures to prevent the further spread of such invasive pathogens, as the protection of species from human-driven disease transmission is a fundamental ethical responsibility in conservation.