Swabbing for Stress

How do you know that Lincoln Park Zoo is making a difference for animal well-being? A positive sign is when one of your researchers earns an award from the Animal Welfare Institute.

Wildlife Disease Ecologist Mary Beth Manjerovic, Ph.D., (above) recently received a Christine Stevens Wildlife Award from this advocacy organization. The award, which funds innovative strategies for human-wildlife conflict management and study, will support Mary Beth’s ongoing investigations into how frog health in the Chicagoland area is tied to stress levels and the presence of the deadly chytrid fungus.

Mary Beth, who works in the Davee Center for Epidemiology and Endocrinology, spent much of the past year splashing after frogs in the Chicago region. Her soggy field experience, shared with Urban Wildlife Institute Reintroduction Biologist Allison Sacerdote-Velat, Ph.D., detected the presence of the chytrid fungus in three local frog species. It’s the first time the pathogen—which has decimated amphibian populations around the globe—has been confirmed in the Chicago region. It’s an important discovery and one that may spur changes in management techniques to protect local frog species.

Wildlife Disease Ecologist Mary Beth Manjerovic, Ph.D., and Urban Wildlife Institute Reintroduction Biologist Allison Sacerdote-Velat, Ph.D., pose together during their field work.

At the same time, Mary Beth and a team led by Davee Center Director Rachel Santymire, Ph.D., took the discovery process one step further by creating a novel—and non-invasive—method for measuring stress levels in local frogs. By simply rubbing a swab over the animals’ skins, our scientists can measure the frogs’ stress levels as expressed in the hormones they secrete. This information will prove vital in teasing out a potential relationship between stress and susceptibility to chytrid. It’s an exciting avenue for gaining information that may help stop the spread of this devastating disease.

Chicago-area frogs were swabbed to test for the presence of the potentially devastating chytrid fungus as well as to non-invasively measure the amphibians' stress levels.

So kudos to Mary Beth for her award. And thank you to all the zoo scientists studying ways to enhance animal health, whether its frogs in the city or gorillas a world away.

Kevin Bell