First detection of ranavirus in a wild population of Dybowski’s brown frog (Rana dybowskii) in South Korea

Abstract

Background: Ranavirus is an emerging infectious disease which has been linked to mass mortality events in various amphibian species. In this study, we document the first mass mortality event of an adult population of Dybowski’s brown frogs (Rana dybowskii), in 2017, within a mountain valley in South Korea. Results: We confirmed the presence of ranavirus from all collected frogs (n = 22) via PCR and obtained the 500 bp major capsid protein (MCP) sequence from 13 individuals. The identified MCP sequence highly resembled Frog virus 3 (FV3) and was the same haplotype of a previously identified viral sequence collected from Huanren brown frog (R. huanrenensis) tadpoles in South Korea. Human habitat alteration, by recent erosion control works, may be partially responsible for this mass mortality event. Conclusion: We document the first mass mortality event in a wild Korean population of R. dybowskii. We also suggest, to determine if ranavirus infection is a threat to amphibians, government officials and researchers should develop continuous, country-wide, ranavirus monitoring programs of Korean amphibian populations.