Chytridiomycosis is an emerging infectious disease affecting amphibians globally and it is caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Chytridiomycosis has caused dramatic declines and even extinctions in wild amphibian populations in Europe, Australia, Central and North America. Spanning over two and a half decades, extensive research has led to discovery of epizootic and enzootic lineages of this pathogen. However, the Bd–amphibian system had garnered less attention in Asia until recently when an ancestral Bd lineage was identified in the Korean peninsula. Amphibians co-exist with the pathogen in Asia, only sub-lethal effects have been documented on hosts. Such regions are ‘coldspots’ of infection and are an important resource to understand the dynamics between the enzootic pathogen—Bd and its obligate host—amphibians. Insights into the biology of infection have provided new knowledge on the multi-faceted interaction of Bd in a hyperdiverse Asian amphibian community. We present the findings and highlight the knowledge gap that exists, and propose the ways to bridge them. We emphasize that chytridiomycosis in Asia is an important wildlife disease and it needs focussed research, as it is a dynamic front of pathogen diversity and virulence.

壶菌病是一种影响全球两栖动物的新兴传染病，它是由真菌病原体Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ( Bd )引起的。壶菌病已导致欧洲、澳大利亚、中美洲和北美洲的野生两栖动物种群急剧减少甚至灭绝。跨越两个半世纪，广泛的研究导致发现这种病原体的流行和地方动物谱系。然而，直到最近，一个祖先的Bd在朝鲜半岛确定了血统。两栖动物在亚洲与病原体共存，仅记录了对宿主的亚致死效应。这些区域是感染的“冷点”，是了解地方性病原体——Bd及其专性宿主——两栖动物之间动态的重要资源。对感染生物学的深入了解为Bd在高度多样化的亚洲两栖动物群落中的多方面相互作用提供了新知识。我们展示了调查结果并强调了存在的知识差距，并提出了弥合它们的方法。我们强调亚洲的壶菌病是一种重要的野生动物疾病，需要重点研究，因为它是病原体多样性和毒力的动态前沿。