Oct. 16, 2007 -- Cane toads are paying a debilitating price for their invasion of Australia, researchers show. It seems the stress of constant movement has left many of the toxic pests vulnerable to severe arthritis.
Rick Shine and his colleagues at the University of Sydney have been following the reviled pests as they spread into the Northern Territory.
Their latest research, published online today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that roughly one in 10 of the largest toads are suffering severe spinal arthritis.
Original Story"The arthritis is linked to infection with the common soil bacteria Ochrobactrum anthropi."
Anybody want to bet that where ever these toads came from didn't have the same microbes?
Doesn't this sound like AS? And supposedly Europe didn't have RA until after we had transatlantic travel. Before, all they had was AS.
And how come MD's say stress isn't an influencer for us? Yet its one for FROGS?
Pip
Gee I wonder if you could get a toad to fizz? Or perhaps make little fly-shaped antibiotic pills and dangle them in front of their faces for them to catch?
This may be it - the path of study for the fizzologists to achieve their Nobel Prize!
I hope they can use AP. How will they inject themselves? They don't have thumbs.
Well Link you've been wanting to go to Australia, nows your chance.
How are you doin today, Mo?
So the toads get it from being too active?? My rheumy says to stay active so it doesn't get worse. hmmmmmm very interesting. when I was young I ate dirt .... is that how I got it too from the common soil bacteria Ochrobactrum anthropi??? Or does this make me a relative of the toad?? hahaha
Hi Link, I'm fine are you? I'm still so tired and sleepy, I can't seem to wake up this week
Hey Celena I ate my share of mud pies, recon they had toad pee in them? ewww...Oh and welcome to the board, I've been slack this week
Link - If the "Save a Toad Foundation" sends you, can you take a bottle of HP? Purely in the advancement of the science of Fizziology, of course!
Pip
Edited for verb tense.
omg.......this is it.....researching the stress of toads when millions of PEOPLE are dying from disease. This takes the cake folks! So how was this research funded? Not with our tax dollars I hope!
jode
It looks like it's the Australian's tax dollars.
Pip
Pip, I will happily take the HP and take notes of my fizziological discoveries
I will even smuggle a toad back for you, so you can study the effects of HP on arthritic toads for yourself. We'll meet for coffee and compare notes. Write a paper or something.
Fabulous!
Oslo - here we ALL come!
Pip
Hill - you made me snort too, lovely visual Pip :) I will put in for a travel voucher and see if we can get a large group of us over there for fizzing research. A month, minimum.
But, when I read Arliss' first post, I thought, how can a toad have arthritis? So from the left wing, commie, manipulated Wikipedia comes:
Toad refers to a number of species of amphibians.
Amphibians (class Amphibia; from Greek αμφις "both" and βιος "life") are a taxon of animals that include all living tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates) that do not have amniotic eggs, are ectothermic (term for the animals whose body heat is regulated by the external environment; previously known as cold-blooded), and generally spend part of their time on land.
So humans are related to toads? I flunked science.
OK guys quick biology lesson. Cane toads were imported into the country in the 1940's to get rid of the cane beetle. Stupid cane beetles live up the stalk of the sugar cane and the toads can't hop that high. Total failure. Cane toads can however destroy the enviornment by killing anything that eats them or touches them. At the moment the are on the march through the north and into Kadadu World Heritage area. Dingoes try to eat them and die. Large birds try to eat them and die. Crocodiles try to eat them and die. Goanna's try to eat them and die. Snakes try to eat them and die. All these native animals are dying and the cane toads are proliferating. They are a scourge on the countryside and many attempts have been made to kill them off. All of which have so far failed. They even have a bounty on them. Cane toad poison kills the domestic pets that get them too.
DIE CANE TOADS DIE!!!!!!!
They are killing our native environment. You guys spend large amounts on eradicating non native flora and fauna in the States and here it is even more important as some of our native animals are soo unique that there is nothing remotely like them elsewhere in the world, once they are gone, they are gone.
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/publicat ions/cane-toad/pubs/cane-toad.pdf
And I KNEW they were not native to the area! Didn't I say that!
You know, they did something similar in the US. They imported these lady bug looking creatures because they naturally eat tomato aphid's - but not only did they eat the aphids, they ate everything else that was remotely near the plants. Now our 'real' lady bug population is gone as well as a lot of other native species. The "faux lady bugs" are orange and BITE.
Pip
No I never thought you thought we were nuts PIP Just wanted folks to see that it WAS a serious matter.
You have to be soo careful importing species.
And in CA they stop you at the border and confiscate any fruit and vegetables and flowers.
Pip
< =text/>_popupControl(); Wow...I didn't know frogs could do so much harm and damage to the ecosystem. Wow.Those frogs live where they live for a specific reason. That is their environment in which they are designed to live in and keep mother nature in balance. Import any species to a country where it is not native and bad things happen. You can't import trees or flowers or anything else like that either!!! Mother Nature is way too delicate a system and balance and if we keep doing this kind of stuff to her...she
Cane toads are one of the reasons that Australia has one of the tightest quarantine systems in the world. It is almost impossible to get anything into the country.
Other imports that have caused massive damage to our environment are rabbits, foxes, blackberries, ivy,,,,, the list goes on
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