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Testing Times: Dr Arthur White looks at research that uses lungworms to attack cane toads. Research at Sydney University with Professor Rick Shine in charge was looking at the possibility of introducing parasitic lungworms into cane toads with the idea of causing their demise. The particular lungworm, a species of rhabdias, is a black nematode that crawl around the lung, feeding off the juices. It was thought that introducing an exotic species would harm the cane toads’ defences and, while many of the small toads became massively underweight, the majority actually survived. More recent studies of cane toads have shown that many of them already have a species of rhabdias in their lungs, one that had never been recognised in Australia before.
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| Cane Toad with Rhabdias infecting the lungs
Unfortunately, the species of lungworm was brought with them when cane toads were first introduced into Australia and the cane toads are not affected by them.
The question then was how native frogs would be affected if the cane toad lungworm entered their habitats. The first three species tested were ground frogs and the research team was relieved when nothing happened. The next three species were all tree frogs and when they were infected with the lungworm it was 100% fatal.
The research might go some way to explain why there are large animal disappearances after cane toads reach an area.
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Cane toads do eat snakes and lizards but they may also be infecting species with lungworm, wiping them out fast. It is not known how the lungworm is passed on to other animals so the tree frogs, which aren’t ground dwellers, may yet be safe.
The only way now for the project is to possibly look at engineering another kind of rhabdias or to find a different parasite and until the life cycle of a lungworm is unravelled there is no knowledge of how infection across species is likely to occur. This is exactly what the research team at Sydney University is doing now. It is hoped that these are testing times will lead to testing times for cane toads.
Text: V.B. September 2010
Image from Arthur White
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Professor Rick Shine's research group has been working on a number of novel approachs to controlling Cane Toads in Australia. Read about Team Bufo's work on their dedicated website.
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