Thursday 15 November 2007

New Bd epidemiology paper



Mitchell et al. have a paper in press in Proc R Soc B. on a mathematical model which assesses the impact of long lived zoospores and/or saphrophytic reproduction of Bd on amphibian host dynamics. Following the findings of Di Rosa et al. of a potential resting stage of Bd, we thought that it would be interesting to determine the effect of zoospore longevity on the probability of the host going extinct in a single host system. We paramaterised the model using experimentally- and field-determined measurements; we have found that the occurrence of a long-lived environmental stage can explain how Bd reduces amphibian populations to very low levels, and in some cases can cause local extinction of the host locally. Preprints of this paper are available from Mat Fisher.

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Merging mapping services


Following  the 'mapping session' at the conference,  Dede Olson agreed to join forces and port the current dataset to the bd site.   Negative data points will be included allowing the spread of infection to be monitored.  Private databases have been requested by a number of users.   Final datafields are being decided and an announcement will be made shortly. Reports will be added to this BLOG to show progression as well as the surveillance pages.

Thanks everyone for making the conference so welcoming.

David