The sensitivity of amphibians to Ranavirus may be increased by exposure to other environmental stressors, including chemical contaminants. Neonicotinoid insecticides comprise 27% of the global insecticide market and have been detected in wetlands and other aquatic habitats. The present study focused on the effects of exposure of pre-metamorphic Xenopus laevis to the neonicotinoid, imidacloprid (IMI) on sensitivity to frog virus 3 (FV3) infection. It was hypothesized that exposure of tadpoles to IMI at sublethal concentrations of 1 and 500 μg L⁻¹ would increase FV3 related mortalities relative to tadpole mortalities in a control treatment with only the virus. However, contrary to the predicted outcome, IMI reduced the rates of mortality following viral challenge, although the total mortalities by the 25th day after infection did not differ among the treatments. These results should not be interpreted as an indication that neonicotinoid insecticides are beneficial to aquatic ecosystems, since these insecticides cause toxic responses at low concentrations to other non-target aquatic organisms.

通过暴露于其他环境应激源（包括化学污染物），可以提高两栖动物对Ranavirus的敏感性。新烟碱类杀虫剂占全球杀虫剂市场的27％，并已在湿地和其他水生生境中被发现。本研究的重点是将变质前爪蟾暴露于新烟碱，吡虫啉（IMI）对青蛙病毒3（FV3）感染的敏感性的影响。假设that的致死浓度为1和500μgL ^-1时， to暴露于IMI在仅使用病毒的对照治疗中，与t的死亡率相比，FV3相关的死亡率会增加。然而，与预期结果相反，尽管感染之间在治疗后第25天的总死亡率没有差异，但IMI降低了病毒攻击后的死亡率。这些结果不应被解释为表明新烟碱类杀虫剂对水生生态系统有益，因为这些杀虫剂在低浓度下会引起对其他非目标水生生物的毒性反应。