What is the Discovery?

The Lungworm Rhahbias cf hylae infects native frogs. Native frogs pass the lungworm onto cane toads. Lungworms make cane toads sick and adversely impact on the cane toads’ breeding ability, making the lungworm a potential weapon in the fight to stop the cane toad. As the KTBs understand the situation, it has been believed by cane toad research scientists that lungworms are not present in the colonising front line cane toads and that lungworms are well behind the frontline toads by up to a twenty years catch-up period.

Why is this discovery important?

It is known that Australian native frogs and cane toads in Queensland have been harmed and diminished by the lungworm. The lungworm kills small and immature cane toads, and metamorphs. Cane toads infected with parasites are unlikely to travel! Until the recent KTB discovery, there had been insufficient research on whether this lungworm might/or might not be present in toads and native frogs at colonising cane toad ‘fronts’, such as the front moving towards the WA East Kimberley from the NT. “Understanding where, when and how lung worms infect toads may lead us to a control mechanism for cane toads, and this gives us cause for hope”, said Lee Scott-Virtue.

In his ground breaking research, Jordy has also found other parasites in the cane toads he has autopsied. Dr Di Barton, one of Australia’s leading frog parasitologists has recently been helping the KTBs and has told the KTBs that,

No-one had taken a “whole host” point of view before I did – which was to list ALL the parasites found from a host species … the actual parasite fauna of most of Australia’s frogs is unknown”.

After less than 2 months in the field Jordy has conclusively determined that the lungworm is present in 80% of toads less than 2 years behind the front. “I now expect to find cane toads infected even closer to the frontline colonisers” said Jordy. He added, “This is an incredible breakthrough and if we could confirm that the native frog species responsible for passing on this lungworm were also present at the very frontline areas there is the possibility we could drop infected toads into these areas without any adverse impacts on native species. This would significantly hasten the adverse impact of the lungworm on the cane toad and might result in a massive reduction in numbers and resilience of toads in any given area”.

Jordy confirmed that there is an urgent need to determine how many species of native Kimberley frogs had the lungworm before any infected toads could be dropped into frontline areas. He went on to state that, “Infected toads would also need to be ‘tagged’ and monitored to ensure toad busting teams did not remove them during a bust”.