Surveillance for the Snake Fungal Disease Pathogen Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola in the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake (Sistrurus c. catenatus), Pennsylvania, USA

摘要

Disease-associated mortality is a fundamental influence on natural population dynamics but is particularly problematic when emerging pathogens infect small, isolated populations of rare species. Snake fungal disease (SFD) is associated with the pathogen Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola (= Chrysosporium sp.) (Allender et al. 2015a). SFD occurs in at least 24 states of the eastern and mid-western United States, and Ontario, Canada (Lorch et al. 2016; Persons et al. 2017), and the pathogen was recently reported from European snakes (Franklinos et al. 2017). Broad surveillance efforts and several detailed population-level studies have documented this pathogen in free-ranging snakes representing at least 20 North American species (Lorch et al. 2016).