Populations of the eastern hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis have been declining for decades, and emerging pathogens and pesticides are hypothesized to be contributing factors. However, few empirical studies have attempted to test the potential effects of these factors on hellbenders. We simultaneously exposed subadult hellbenders to environmentally relevant concentrations of either Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) or a frog virus 3‐like ranavirus (RV), a combination of the pathogens, or each pathogen following exposure to a glyphosate herbicide (Roundup). Additionally, we measured the ability of the skin mucosome to inactivate Bd and RV in growth assays. We found that mucosome significantly inactivated RV by an average of 40% but had no negative effects on Bd growth. All treatments that included RV exposure experienced reduced survival compared to controls, and the combination of RV and herbicide resulted in 100% mortality. Histopathology verified RV as the cause of mortality in all RV‐exposed treatments. No animals were infected with Bd or died in the Bd‐only treatment. Our results suggest that RV exposure may be a significant threat to the survival of subadult hellbenders and that Roundup exposure may potentially exacerbate this threat.

中文翻译：

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新出现的病原体和当前使用的杀虫剂：对东部地狱的潜在影响


几十年来，东部地狱隐鳃龟的数量一直在下降，新出现的病原体和杀虫剂被认为是促成因素。然而，很少有实证研究试图测试这些因素对地狱者的潜在影响。我们同时将亚成体地狱蛙暴露于环境相关浓度的树突壶菌( Bd ) 或青蛙病毒 3 样蛙病毒 (RV)、病原体的组合或接触草甘膦除草剂（农达）后的每种病原体。此外，我们在生长测定中测量了皮肤粘膜灭活Bd和 RV 的能力。我们发现粘膜使 RV 平均显着失活 40%，但对Bd生长没有负面影响。与对照组相比，所有包含 RV 暴露的治疗方法的存活率均降低，并且 RV 和除草剂的组合导致 100% 的死亡率。组织病理学证实 RV 是所有 RV 暴露治疗中的死亡原因。在仅Bd治疗中，没有动物感染Bd或死亡。我们的结果表明，RV 暴露可能对亚成年地狱犬的生存构成重大威胁，而农达暴露可能会加剧这种威胁。