"... the only group of organisms that have been convincingly shown to cause extinction."
What are they? They're responsible for massive worldwide die-offs of frogs and other amphibians. They're killing huge numbers of bats across the United States and threatening some local populations with outright extinction. They've also been convincingly associated with bee-colony collapse disorder which has wiped out 20 - 40 percent of U.S. honeybee colonies.
But they're not all bad. They invented penicillin and make other good things like beer and bread.
So, what are they? Read all about them in the Institute of Medicine's new report: "Fungal Diseases: An Emerging Threat to Human, Animal and Plant Health: Workshop Summary". The partial quote in our blog title comes from one of the participants, Arturo Casadevall, who said "Fungi are the only group of organisms that have been convincingly shown to cause extinction." And if you want more proof that infectious disease have most certainly not been conquered (and in fact have been invisible to investigators until now) be sure to read the story of the Cryptococcus gatti epidemic that emerged on Vancouver Island and has spread to the Northwestern U.S. killing 40 and sickening over 300 so far.
