Does the agricultural fungicide Tebuconazole inhibit the growth of the amphibian chytrid fungus?

In the US, significant research is ongoing regarding the interactions of pesticides with species and processes within wetland ecosystems. For example, the effect of such pollutants on amphibian survival and physiology has been an area of focused research. Negative impacts of pesticides to non-target organisms (e.g. amphibians) have been observed. The effects of the fungal disease to amphibians that are also exposed to pesticides is complex, however the effects of pesticides on the free-living fungal pathogen has received little attention. We hypothesized that Tebuconazole would inhibit the growth of the amphibian chytrid fungus in culture. To test this hypothesis, we measured the growth of the fungus exposed to a high concentration of Tebuconazole (0.02mg/ml) over a 12 day period. We observed a rapid increase in fungal density in the first two days of the experiment, followed by a steady decrease in the density. We conclude that a high concentration (0.02 mg/ml) amphibian chytrid fungus growth appears to be inhibited by Tebuconazole, although exposure time appears to be an important factor in the response