Workshop on Amphibian Diseases and Immunity to be held July 26-28, 1998, at the San Diego Zoo

该提案要求为将于1998年7月26日至28日在圣地亚哥动物园举行的题为“两栖动物疾病和免疫功能研讨会”的研讨会提供资金。这次研讨会是继5月28日至29日在国家科学基金会举行的“两栖动物衰退研讨会”之后举行的。该研讨会汇集了许多研究世界各地两栖动物数量下降的生物学家。几次演讲集中讨论了疾病在该领域两栖动物死亡中的作用。由于两栖动物具有强大的免疫系统，应该能够抵御除最致命的病原体外的所有病原体，现有的数据表明，一个或多个环境因素正在以一种对两栖动物有害的方式改变病原体和宿主之间的平衡。由于最近在包括珊瑚礁、海龟和哺乳动物在内的许多不同类型的生物中发现了疾病暴发，这些观察结果加在一起可能表明全球环境恶化到了人类可能很快也面临危险的程度。研讨会将汇集观察两栖动物数量下降的专家、病理学家、流行病学家、神经免疫学家、内分泌学家和免疫毒理学家，以确定关于这些大规模死亡的已知情况和需要了解的情况。确定导致两栖动物大量死亡的病原体，它们成功感染两栖动物的方式，以及两栖动物免疫系统不能成功保护它们的原因，对于预测哪些环境因素可能是两栖动物数量减少的最终原因至关重要。研究结果将发表在《发育与比较免疫学》杂志上。

Carey 9815335 This proposal requests funding for a workshop, entitled "Workshop on Amphibian Diseases and Immune Function", to be held July 26-28, 1998, at the San Diego Zoo. This workshop follows a "Workshop on Amphibian Declines", held May 28-29, at the National Science Foundation. That workshop brought together a number of biologists who have been working on amphibian declines around the world. Several presentations focused on the role of disease as a factor in amphibian mortality in the field. Since amphibians have robust iminune systems that should be capable of defending against all but the most virulent pathogens, the existing data suggest that one or more environmental factors are altering the balances between pathogens and hosts in a manner that is detrimental to the amphibians. Since outbreaks of disease have recently been noted in a number of different types of organisms, including coral reefs, turtles, and mammals, these observations together may signal global environmental deterioration to the extent that humans may also soon be at risk. The workshop will bring together individuals who have observed amphibian declines in the field, pathologists, epidemiologists, neuroinimunologists, endocrinologists, and immunotoxicologists to identify what is known and what needs to be learned about these mass die-offs. Identification of the pathogens involved in amphibian mass-mortality, the manner by which they are successfully infecting amphibians, and the reasons why the immune systems of amphibians are not successfully protecting them is essential for predicting which environmental factors might be the ultimate causal factors in amphibian declines. A review of the findings will be published in Developmental and Comparative Immunology.