CORNISH GUARDIAN (Truro, UK) 05 October 10 Common frog population at risk as fatal bleeding disease ranavirus spreads
The Westcountry's frog population could be at risk due to a disease which causes them to bleed to death.
Biologists at the Zoological Society of London have found that common frogs have suffered declines of about 80 per cent in the areas worst hit by the disease, known as ranavirus.
Dr Trent Garner, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Zoology, said: "Many of these populations are hanging on by a handful of frogs.
"If the disease causes the frog populations to fall so low then so many other factors come into play that could cause local extinctions."
Ranavirus is first thought to have appeared in Britain in the 1980s when the first deaths were reported in the South East of England, after being introduced through imported fish or amphibians.
The disease has gradually spread across the country and there have been reports of large numbers of frog deaths from ranavirus in Cornwall, Wales and as far north as Manchester.
Wildlife groups in the Westcountry yesterday confirmed there had been mass frog deaths and urged the public to report any sightings to them.
Mark Nicholson, co-ordinator of Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Reptile and Amphibian Group, said: "Cornwall is thankfully some distance from the original source of the disease, in the South East of England, and we tend to think that the problem is still not so great here, but there have certainly been many cases of suspicious mass frog deaths in the county."
Common frog population at risk as fatal bleeding disease ranavirus spreads