Data from: Skin sloughing in susceptible and resistant amphibians regulates infection with a fungal pathogen

The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been
implicated in amphibian population declines globally. Given that Bd
infection is limited to the skin in post-metamorphic amphibians, routine
skin sloughing may regulate infection. Skin sloughing has been shown to
reduce the number of cultivatable microbes on amphibian skin, and Bd
infection increases skin sloughing rates at high loads. However, it is
unclear whether species specific differences in skin sloughing patterns
could regulate Bd population growth on the skin, and influence subsequent
infection dynamics. We exposed five Australian frog species to Bd, and
monitored sloughing rates and infection loads over time. Sloughing reduced
Bd load on the ventral skin surface, in all five species, despite wide
variation in susceptibility to disease. In the least susceptible species,
an increase in sloughing rate occurred at lower infection loads, and
sloughing reduced Bd load up to 100%, leading to infection clearance.
Conversely, the drop in Bd load with sloughing was only temporary in the
more susceptible species. These findings indicate that the ability of
sloughing to act as an effective immune defence is species specific, and
they have implications for understanding the pattern of Bd population
growth on individual hosts, as well as population-level effects.