Frog's skin is a very good environmental indicator of environmental toxins and pollutants in the environment. Researchers in colorado have been developing theories about reintroduction of endangered species and the chemicals that kill frog species off.
"We have all these amphibians in captivity now, like the golden frog in Panama, a really beautiful species that is now extinct in the wild," said Douglas Woodhams, a postdoctoral researcher at CU-Boulder and lead author of the paper.
"We want to be able to reintroduce them, but the pathogen that attacked them is still out there," he said. "Now we can determine what probiotic treatment might work best to protect the frogs without infecting them with the pathogen and seeing how many die."
The mucus that coats amphibians is home to a teeming community of microbes and also contains biochemical defenses secreted by the animal itself. The interplay between these microbes -- which include beneficial and pathogenic species of bacteria and fungi -- and the biochemical defenses determine how susceptible the amphibian is to a particular disease."
Unfortunately, amphibians are good environmental indicators but it is important to act after we are aware of these pollutants and issues.
