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Emerging infectious diseases are a growing threat to biodiversity worldwide. Outbreaks of the infectious disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogen  Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis  ( Bd ), are implicated in the decline and extinction of numerous amphibian species. In Costa Rica, a major decline event occurred in 1987, more than two decades before this pathogen was discovered. The loss of many species in Costa Rica is assumed to be due to  Bd -epizootics, but there are few studies that provide data from amphibians in the time leading up to the proposed epizootics. In this study, we provide new data on  Bd  infection rates of amphibians collected throughout Costa Rica, in the decades prior to the epizootics. We used a quantitative PCR assay to test for  Bd  presence in 1016 anuran museum specimens collected throughout Costa Rica. The earliest specimen that tested positive for  Bd  was collected in 1964. Across all time periods, we found an overall infection rate (defined as the proportion of  Bd -positive individuals) of 4%. The number of infected individuals remained relatively low across all species tested and the range of  Bd- positive specimens was shown to be geographically constrained up until the 1980s; when epizootics are hypothesized to have occurred. After that time, infection rate increased three-fold, and the range of specimens tested positive for  Bd  increased, with  Bd -positive specimens collected across the entire country. Our results suggest that  Bd  dynamics in Costa Rica are more complicated than previously thought. The discovery of  Bd ’s presence in the country preceding massive declines leads to a number of different hypotheses: 1)  Bd  invaded Costa Rica earlier than previously known, and spread more slowly than previously reported; 2)  Bd  invaded multiple times and faded out; 3) an endemic  Bd  lineage existed; 4) an earlier  Bd  lineage evolved into the current  Bd  lineage or hybridized with an invasive lineage; or 5) an earlier  Bd  lineage went extinct and a new invasion event occurred causing epizootics. To help visualize areas where future studies should take place, we provide a  Bd  habitat suitability model trained with local data. Studies that provide information on genetic lineages of  Bd  are needed to determine the most plausible spatial-temporal, host-pathogen dynamics that could best explain the epizootics resulting in amphibian declines in Costa Rica and throughout Central America.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in amphibians predates first known epizootic in Costa Rica