Disease Ecology : Past and Present for a Better Future XI Latin American Congress of Herpetology , Quito , Ecuador , July 24 – 28 2017

D URING recent years, the emergence of infectious diseases has caused global concern due to its link with species extinctions and population declines (Jones et al., 2008; Frick et al., 2010; Fisher et al., 2012; Lorch et al., 2016). Although biodiversity losses have been documented globally across multiple taxonomic groups (Gibbons et al., 2000; Mooney, 2010), amphibians are recognized as a group of serious conservation concern (Houlahan et al., 2000; Alford et al., 2001; Stuart et al., 2004; Wake and Vredenburg, 2008; Kilpatrick et al., 2010; Grant et al., 2016), with extinction rates estimated to exceed 105 times the baseline for all species (Pechmann et al., 1991; McCallum, 2007; Alroy, 2015; Solow, 2016). Amphibian population declines have been reported on most continents (Berger et al., 1998; Hero and Morrison, 2004; Lips et al., 2005; Pasmans et al., 2006) and have been associated with multiple factors such as habitat loss, the introduction of nonnative species, and emerging infectious diseases (Kats and Ferrer, 2003; Cushman, 2006; Blaustein et al., 2011; Hof et al., 2011). Vast information on amphibian diseases has been collected from experimental and field research from scientists working in the United States (Briggs et al., 2010; Vredenburg et al., 2010; Searle et al., 2011; Blaustein et al., 2012, 2018; Gervasi et al., 2013; Rosenblum et al., 2013; Savage and Zamudio, 2016), Europe (Garner et al., 2005; Bosch and MartinezSolano, 2006), and Australia (Woodhams et al., 2008; Voyles, 2011; Voyles et al., 2011; James et al., 2015). In Latin America, the topic of amphibian disease ecology is one of increasing concern, as multiple population declines and extinctions have been reported for this continent (Young et al., 2001; Crawford et al., 2010; Soto-Azat et al., 2013a, 2013b; Catenazzi et al., 2017; Valenzuela-Sánchez et al., 2017) that harbors half of all amphibian species on the planet (Stuart et al., 2008). Therefore, there is an urgent need to better understand the patterns and processes associated with these declines and extinctions. Currently, ecologists, conservationists, and herpetologists are making considerable efforts to advance this field of research in Latin America with the aim of preserving its unique amphibian biodiversity. At the symposium ‘‘Disease Ecology: Past and Present for a Better Future’’ held as part of the XI Latin American Congress of Herpetology, experts from nine countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Spain, and the United States of America) presented results of their ongoing research and most recent discoveries. Furthermore, they identified major gaps in the field and the necessary actions to fill these research gaps. Our goal here is to summarize the main findings presented at the symposium and introduce a few research opportunities to advance the field of disease ecology in the region. We are not providing an exhaustive review of the field of disease ecology in Latin America, but we expect this communication will provide useful information for people interested in this area of research.