Minimum lethal concentration of sodium hypochlorite for the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis

Abstract

Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) is the active ingredient in household bleach and is commonly used as a disinfectant to clean equipment contaminated by the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in lab husbandry and field studies. We conducted a series of replicated exposure trials using a single Global Pandemic Lineage Bd isolate from Panama (JEL 310) and concentrations of NaOCl ranging from 0.006% to 0.6% for exposure times ranging from 30 seconds to 15 minutes to determine the minimum lethal concentration of NaOCl for this isolate of Bd. Sodium hypochlorite completely killed Bd at a concentration of 0.03% during a 15-minute exposure time, while 0.12% NaOCl was effective at all exposure times (30s-15min).This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.