PNAS: Be wareed of! Stress increases susceptibility to the virus!

May 27, 2020 /PRNewswire
2020BioON/-- A new study by researchers at Washington State University suggests that even antifreeze frogs are affected by stressstudy was published recently in proceedings of the Royal Society BTree frogs raised in high-salinating ponds on road de-icers are more susceptible to deadly ranavirus infections, the study foundThese findings provide more support for stress-induced susceptibility hypotheses, which may help explain the sharp decline in wildlife populations in recent years"We see large-scale deaths in these wild animals usually caused by infectious diseases, and we note that this is related to some kind of environmental change," said Emily Hall, lead author of the studyThe study is part of her doctoral thesis at Washington State Universityresearchers studied tree frog larvae in ponds in the northeastern United States, where salt is common as a road de-icing agentAt first, Hall was interested in the effects of road salt in the pond on frog development, but at some of her research sites, all the dragonflies diedimage source: https://cn.bing.com
"When you come to a pond and all of a sudden all the little dragonflies are floating on the water, it's really dramatic," Hall saidShe found that they died from ranavirus, a common viral pathogen, and that healthy tree frogs usually surviveHall, in collaboration with her consultant, stress physiologist Professor Erica Crespi, and disease ecologist Jesse Brunner, began a new study that combined field work and laboratory research to study the potential link between salinity stress and susceptibility to infectionresearchers found that animals exposed to salt were 10 times more infected when exposed to ranavirusSaline slugs are also more contagious, releasing five times as many viruses into the water as infected animals that grow up in salt-free fresh waterresearchers did not find that just because of increased salinity, the frog's corticosteroids, or stress hormones, also increasedOnly in the event of a viral infection do they see elevated hormone levels, which suppresses the immune response"The significance of this discovery goes beyond the small ponds in the Northeast," said Crespi,We may be studying amphibian pathogen systems, but the phenomena we are seeing now may play a role in the COVID-19 outbreakChronic non-lethal stress can lead to health outcomes that we didn't realize before a crisisPeople who are under persistent socio-economic stress or suffer from metabolic diseases orasthma are experiencing more severe infections and higher mortality ratesThat's what we see in the saltwater pool"
washington State University's research also has an impact on how scientists protect wildlife and mass extinctionsUnlike other species of amphibians, the number of tree frogs has not decreased significantlyThis is a common, often elastic frog, whose activities extend from Alabama all the way to the North PoleLarge-scale deaths caused by the virus have been observed in many parts of the world, but it is an open question as to why one population will die and the other will not dieThe researchers hypothesized that potentially harsh conditions increased stress, which could play a role in the location of these deathsimage source: https://cn.bing.com
"Since tree frogs are not a species of concern, people may not think it's a conservation story, but I think it is," Crespi said "No one can predict the extinction of species This is not a linear descent process It is always the result of a combination of factors, resulting in more serious results than expected We should consider looking for preventive drugs in protection Crespi said preventive protection measures require monitoring populations, assessing the complex relationship between stressors and health threats, and finding ways to reduce them In this case, the researchers recommend that road workers look for opportunities to reduce salt use during winter road treatment, taking into account safety issues, such as the use of gravel, as it did in the Pacific Northwest (biovalleybioon.com) references: Amphibian study show stress shredy to virusalinity stress severity of the severity of the , Proceedings of the Royal Society B, rspb.royalsociety.or .. 1098/rspb.2020.0062