| During the summer of 1997, a number of ill and/or dying tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum diaboli) were found near Regina, Saskatchewan. The disease causing agent was soon after identified as a novel virus in the group Iridoviridae. This newly described virus was named after the area from which it was first isolated---Regina ranavirus ( RRV). Subsequent work was ultimately aimed at describing the ecology of RRV in populations of tiger salamanders in Saskatchewan. To this end, a small laboratory study (described in Chapter 1) and a larger field study (described in Chapter 2) were conducted in 1998 and early 1999.;The field study was conducted at ponds where RRV had been isolated from in 1997. The objectives of the field study were to describe the frequency of occurrence of RRV in wild populations of tiger salamanders, quantify the effects of RRV-induced die-offs (i.e. mass mortality attributable to RRV) on tiger salamander populations, determine if any of the sympatric species of fish or amphibians found at the sites were also susceptible to RRV, and to determine whether RRV is endemic to tiger salamanders. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
