Parasites May Get Nastier with Climate Swings

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=parasites-may-get-nastier-with-climate

OSLO (Reuters) - Parasites look set to become more virulent because of climate change, according to a study showing that frogs suffer more infections from a fungus when exposed to unexpected swings in temperatures.

Parasites, which include tapeworms, the tiny organisms that cause malaria and funguses, may be more nimble at adapting to climatic shifts than the animals they live on since they are smaller and grow more quickly, scientists said.

"Increases in climate variability are likely to make it easier for parasites to infect their hosts," Thomas Raffel of Oakland University in the United States told Reuters, based on findings about frogs and a sometimes deadly skin fungus.

"We think this could exacerbate the effects of some disease," he said of the report he led with colleagues at the University of South Florida. It will be published in Monday's edition of the journal Nature Climate Change. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)