Scientists call for import ban to save Europe’s salamanders from skin-eating fungus

Urgent trade embargo on live Asian species is needed to prevent a virulent disease from wiping out European newts and salamander populations

A skin-eating fungus could eradicate newts and salamanders from large tracts of Europe by 2020 unless a ban on live imports of Asian species is urgently introduced, a group of scientists and NGOs has warned.

The US embargoed 201 species last month in a crackdown on the virulent Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans or "Bsal" fungus, which is thought to originate in Asia.