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Like us, frogs don't live forever and it's natural that people
will come across the occasional dead frog now and
again. However, if several dead frogs appear within a few
days of each other, this is unnatural and ranavirus could be the
cause of this - some people have found 20 or more dead frogs in
their garden at the same time.
The disease is most apparent during summer, especially on hot
days between
,
as it is most virulent at temperatures above 25°C. Dead frogs
found in winter or spring are more likely to have died of other
causes, often related to predators or weather conditions.
You are more likely to see dead or dying frogs
rather than in the pond, if they have died in the pond there is
likely to be another cause.
The frogs may appear slower and/or
thinner than usual, and there may be bleeding or ulceration,
however in some cases the dead frogs have no obvious symptoms.
The only way to be sure if it is ranavirus is to have one of the
bodies analysed; this can be done by one of our research
partners.
The slow development of tadpoles into frogs has not been linked
to the disease. If present at the tadpole stage ranavirus is
likely to kill them directly within a few days, although recent
research suggests that the strain of ranavirus in the UK does
not kill tadpoles in the wild. If you have had a ranavirus outbreak before
and are now getting malformed tadpoles/froglets please
get in
touch as this could be significant.
Other causes of frog death.
Full list of
symptoms.
Submitting samples for analysis.
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