In the Oslo area, in addition to water sampling, also amphibians samples have been collected, that include tissues (finger) as well as skin swabs. These were conducted by Annette Taugbøl of NINA together with David Strand of NVI and their team.
Common toad and smooth newt samples were collected from 8 ponds, both urban and rural:
COMMON TOAD
Vesletjernet | rural pond | 59.9345475 | 10.9686618 |
Svartputten | rural pond | 59.97557 | 10.847289 |
Holmenkollen | urban/rural pond | 59.965445 | 10.664835 |
Lindbeckdammen | urban pond | 59.866724 | 10.801939 |
SMOOTH NEWT
Hovindammen | urban pond | 59.920367 | 10.800095 |
Nesvangen | urban pond | 59.865705 | 10.503824 |
Tjernsrudtjernet | urban pond | 59.921539 | 10.609578 |
Lindbeckdammen | urban pond | 59.866724 | 10.801939 |
Amphibian tissue samples (fingers) have already been passed on to Wiesław Babik's laboratory at the Jagiellonian University, for the purposes of WP3. In the same time the collected amphibian swabs have been sent to the laboratory of University of Łódź, where a team led by Karolina Bącela-Spychalska will carry out microbiome DNA extraction. The DNA will be used for further analysis through metabarcoding within WP1.
Furthermore, isolated DNA from the microbiome of amphibians in which the Bd pathogen is detected, will be transferred to our partners in Norway, according to the objectives of the project's WP4.
Unfortunately, it may turn out that the collected number of amphibian samples is not sufficient. In that case we will have to repeat the sampling next year. Perhaps also in other ponds which were not included in the current season.
We invite you to see photos of the Oslo area amphibian sampling in our GALLERY.