Cane toad killer worm discovered
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Scientists believe they may have found a chink in the armour of the dreaded cane toad.
Sydney researchers have identified a parasitic worm that attacks frogs' and toads' lungs, stunting their growth, and often killing them.
"It's a pretty exciting set of results", says team leader Prof Rick Shine.
"We've known for some time that there is a parasite, a lung-worm, that lives in Australian frogs and they have shifted across to the cane toad."
"They kill a large number of the small toads that we infected (in the laboratory)".
"The ones that do survive grow less quickly, eat less and generally the parasites are a huge problem for the toad."
The researchers are part of a group known as Team Bufo, named after the despised cane toad, bufo marinus.
Prof Shine said the parasite was absent from toads along the so called "invasion front", appearing only in those living close to the Queensland coastline.
If toads in regions such as the Northern Territory and northern NSW were infected by the parasite, it could slow their advance dramatically, Prof Shine said.
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