Fungal infections that increasingly affect animals can have serious implications on the wild life in a context more hot as a result of climate change.
Scientists from the australian James Cook University analyzed a group of frogs infected with a microscopic fungus that affects your skin and discovered that this condition reduces in the batrachians the heat tolerance up to about 4 degrees celsius.
«We also discovered that other groups of animals became more sensitive to heat when they were infected by parasites and pathogens. This suggests that this phenomenon may spread,» said Sacha Greenspan, the principal author of this study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Many animals, among them frogs, depend on external sources to increase body temperature and therefore is exposed to sunlight, an activity that helps you to remove the parasites that carry or improve your immune system.
Scientists fear that the increased sensitivity to heat due to infections can discourage these protective behaviors, giving advantage to the parasites. By his side, Brett Scheffers, an expert from the University of Florida and co-author of the study, stressed the importance of understanding how this phenomenon will impact the wildlife in a context of climate change.
«Considering that the climate will be warmer and more extreme climate change and new diseases can work together in favor of the extinction of the species,» said Scheffers in the release of the James Cook University.
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