Screening my animals for chytrid

I got a present from the postage fairy this morning; 40 sterile swabs from a PhD student of Wildlife Epidemiology at the Institute of Zoology in London, who's conducting research into chytrid in the pet trade. I negotiated a deal in which I get to swab my animals and have them tested for chytrid at no charge (usual 'retail' price is about £24 per test, and the tests each cost the lab £5-10 to perform) as long as I send her any (up to a maximum of 20, and no more than 2 from each enclosure) that test positive so that she can attempt to isolate and culture new strains of the fungus for study (and I might even get the animals back when she's done with them). I have a lot of species that she's never tested before, and I've also asked her if she'd like me to freeze any dead ones I find and send them to her.

Good deal! I'd be interested in hearing the results. Otterwoman and I are the only people that I know of who have tested any pet caudates. We both tested one animal from each of 8 enclosures (total of 16 swabs, roughly 16 species). All were negative.

I think xxianxx had his animals tested, possibly by this same researcher. I'm hoping for a nice warm night to bring things out of their burrows and underwater hides so that I can go around my garden and swab them all in one go, although the swabs can be refrigerated for a few days after being used if I need more time to get them all done.

Definitely curious about the results. I've seen some positive swabs at my workplaces and always worry about mine at home.

peter5930 said:

I think xxianxx had his animals tested, possibly by this same researcher. I'm hoping for a nice warm night to bring things out of their burrows and underwater hides so that I can go around my garden and swab them all in one go, although the swabs can be refrigerated for a few days after being used if I need more time to get them all done.

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I am contacting the researcher, a shop i sold some baby Xenopus to was tested, i would like to see the results as they may indicate wether i have chytrid in my collection.

The sterile swabs:

Unless they've been kept with American Bullfrogs, Horned Frogs, or Xenopus, they're all going to be negative. Prove me wrong though, please.

John said:

Unless they've been kept with American Bullfrogs, Horned Frogs, or Xenopus, they're going to all be negative. Prove me wrong though, please.

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I'd rather not prove you wrong.

The results are in; all the tests were negative. My animals are chytrid-free.