For the last
several
years, we have noticed odd subcutaneous lesions in some newts at
various field
sites. We have begun
attending to the incidence of these lesions in earnest and over the
last three years, roughly 40%
of the
newts from one pond appeared to have them.
The lesions
appear to be
caused by an Ichthyophonus-like
organism.
Often, the
animals that
exhibit these lesions appear to be unusually skinny.
We are beginning to study the incidence and impact of this pathogen on the newt populations. See Sherman (2008) and Sherman et al. (2009)