A ban on import of salamanders into the US is being demanded by a group of scientists. They are calling for the ban in an attempt to inhibit the bsal fungus. The fungus is not a trouble for salamanders in its native Asia, but it is fatal to approximately every non-resistant salamander, it encounters.

It is thought that in China, the Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) fungus have grown with the local salamander population. It caused a 96% mortality rate in local salamander populations, when salamanders from China were imported into the Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.

So far, there are no reports of bsal in wild salamander populations in the United States. The scientists are worried, however it will eliminate native North American salamander populations, if it arrives.

As per reports, Vance Vredenburg, San Francisco State University biologist, graduate student Tiffany Yap, and colleagues from the University of California Berkeley called for the ban in a paper that was published in the Policy Forum of the journal Science. They asked the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to ban import of salamanders to the United States.

According to the researchers, amid a continuing sixth mass extinction, over 40% of all amphibians are endangered. As per the researchers, "With no effective means to control spread of Bsal once it is established in wild host populations, Bsal invasion of North America could lead to rapid epizootic (wildlife epidemic) declines and extinctions in the world's richest and most diverse salamander fauna".