Frog killer fungus 'breakthrough' (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Kim Griggs
Science reporter, Wellington

New Zealand scientists have found what appears to be a cure for the disease that is responsible for wiping out many of the world's frog populations.

Chloramphenicol, currently used as an eye ointment for humans, may be a lifesaver for the amphibians, they say.

The researchers found frogs bathed in the solution became resistant to the killer disease, chytridiomycosis.

The fungal disease has been blamed for the extinction of one-third of the 120 species lost since 1980.

Fearful that chytridiomycosis might wipe out New Zealand's critically endangered Archey's frog (Leiopelma archeyi), the researchers have been hunting for a compound that would kill off the disease's trigger, the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7067613.stm

[kestrel91316]

1. Um, I don't think this translates to an actual solution for the global

problem with this disease in the natural environment.......

Chloramphenicol is pretty nasty. We can't be scattering it willy-nilly.