White Nose Syndrome News

• Bat Disease, WNS, Confirmed in Maine: Not Harmful to Humans, but Deadly to Bats published on May 24, 2011
  Media release from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
• Fungus strikes but doesn't kill European bats published on May 06, 2011
  White-nose syndrome, a fungus spreading like wildfire through hibernating North American bats, has just been reported in 12 European countries. But unlike the American epidemic, which typically kills 75 percent or more of exposed bats, the European infection has not been associated with mortality.
• White-nose Syndrome Confirmed In Kentucky Bat published on Apr 13, 2011
  FRANKFORT, Ky. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have detected the presence of white-nose syndrome in a bat residing in Trigg County, located in southwest Kentucky. A suspect little brown bat from a cave in Trigg County, about 30 miles southeast of Paducah, was submitted to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS) in Athens, Ga., which confirmed the disease. White-nose syndrome was first detected in New York state in 2006. It has since killed more than one million cave-dwelling bats in eastern North America. Mortality rates of bats have reached almost 100 percent in multi-year infected caves. With confirmation of the syndrome in Kentucky, a total of 16 states - mostly in the eastern U.S. - and three Canadian provinces have now been confirmed infected. This is likely the most significant disease threat to wildlife Kentucky has ever seen, said Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commissioner, Dr. Jonathan Gassett. It would be professionally irresponsible to take no action to stop or slow this disease. Bats are an important part of our natural environment, acting as pollinators and consuming mosquitoes and other insect pests across the landscape. We plan to aggressively manage this threat as it occurs in Kentucky in order to protect and conserve our bat populations. Anticipating the arrival of white-nose syndrome (WNS) in Kentucky, biologists have taken exhaustive measures to limit its spread. We have had a long-term partnership to address white-nose syndrome in Kentucky since it was first discovered in New York state, said Mike Armstrong, USFWS Regional WNS Coordinator. Now that it is confirmed here, we will continue to support the state in their research and management to limit the spread as much as we can. WNS is known to be transmitted primarily from bat to bat, but fungal spores may be inadvertently carried to caves by humans on clothing and caving gear. Both state and federal agencies took pro-active measures to limit potential human movement of the disease. These measures included increased education on decontamination procedures, surveillance, monitoring and cave closures on private, state and federal lands. All measures were included in the Kentucky WNS Response Plan developed in 2009. Kentucky was the first state to develop a response plan to address WNS both before and after its arrival in the state. Almost 100 hibernacula were checked throughout Kentucky during the winter. The Trigg County cave was one of five revisited by scientists upon confirmation of WNS in Ohio. These hibernacula were rechecked due to their known proximity to infected sites in adjacent states. The privately-owned Trigg County cave is used as a hibernaculum by six species, including the endangered Indiana bat, and is a summer roost for the endangered gray bats. Surrounding caves were checked within a 16-mile radius; no additional infected sites were found. Measures were taken to limit the spread of WNS beyond the Trigg County cave that is regularly used as a hibernaculum by more than 2,000 bats. These included removing and euthanizing 60 highly suspect little brown bats and tri-colored bats, as they were not expected to survive. Bats collected will be used to provide critical information to researchers. Under the direction of Kentucky Fish and Wildlifes veterinarian, Dr. Aaron Hecht, staff from SCWDS collected samples from the bats. A better understanding of the disease process will enhance our ability to respond to outbreaks, said Hecht. Spores of Geomyces destructans, the fungus associated with WNS, are known to reside in the environment. Physical barriers were strategically affixed within the cave to prevent bats from roosting in areas known to harbor infected individuals. These barriers will not alter the climate or restrict passageways used by bats. Scientists are attempting to reduce the possibility of other bats from coming in direct contact with the fungal spores and becoming infected. White-nose syndrome does not affect people. Pest-control services provided by insect-eating bats in the United States likely save the U.S. agricultural industry at least $3 billion a year, and yet insectivorous bats are among the most overlooked economically important, non-domesticated animals in North America, according to an analysis published in this weeks Science magazine Policy Forum. (Source: USGS) For more information about white-Nose syndrome, visit these websites: www.fw.ky.govwww.fws.gov/WhiteNoseSyndrome www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/sets/72157626485081164 www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2743
• Fungus sweeps across the country, killing bats published on Apr 03, 2011
  Reporting from Ruidoso, N.M. More than 100 hibernating bats hang from the vaulted ceiling of a chilly gallery in central New Mexico's Fort Stanton Cave, seemingly unaware of the lights from helmet lanterns sweeping over their gargoyle-like faces.The mood is heavy with anxiety as biologists Marikay Ramsey and Debbie Buecher search for signs of white-nose syndrome, a novel, infectious and lethal cold-loving fungus that digests the skin and wings of hibernating bats and smudges their muzzles with a powdery white growth.
• Bats Worth Billions to Agriculture: Pest-control Services at Risk published on Apr 01, 2011
  Pest-control services provided by insect-eating bats in the United States likely save the U.S. agricultural industry at least $3 billion a year, and yet insectivorous bats are among the most overlooked economically important, non-domesticated animals in North America, according to an analysis published in this weeks Science magazine Policy Forum. "People often ask why we should care about bats, said Paul Cryan, a U.S. Geological Survey research scientist and one of the studys authors. This analysis suggests that bats are saving us big bucks by gobbling up insects that eat or damage our crops. It is obviously beneficial that insectivorous bats are patrolling the skies at night above our fields and forests these bats deserve help." The value of the pest-control services to agriculture provided by bats in the U.S. alone range from a low of $3.7 billion to a high of $53 billion a year, estimated the studys authors, scientists from the University of Pretoria (South Africa), USGS, University of Tennessee and Boston University. They also warned that noticeable economic losses to North American agriculture could occur in the next 4 to 5 years as a result of emerging threats to bat populations. Bats eat tremendous quantities of flying pest insects, so the loss of bats is likely to have long-term effects on agricultural and ecological systems, said Justin Boyles, a researcher with the University of Pretoria and the lead author of the study. Consequently, not only is the conservation of bats important for the well-being of ecosystems, but it is also in the best interest of national and international economies. A single little brown bat, which has a body no bigger than an adults thumb, can eat 4 to 8 grams (the weight of about a grape or two) of insects each night, the authors wrote. Although this may not sound like much, it adds up the loss of the one million bats in the Northeast has probably resulted in between 660 and 1320 metric tons of insects no longer being eaten each year by bats in the region. Additionally, because the agricultural value of bats in the Northeast is small compared with other parts of the country, such losses could be even more substantial in the extensive agricultural regions in the Midwest and the Great Plains where wind-energy development is booming and the fungus responsible for white-nose syndrome was recently detected, said Tom Kunz, a professor of ecology at Boston University, another co-author. Although these estimates include the costs of pesticide applications that are not needed because of the pest-control services bats provide, Boyles and his colleagues said they did not account for the detrimental effects of pesticides on ecosystems nor the economic benefits of bats suppressing pest insects in forests, both of which may be considerable. Bat populations are at risk in some areas of the country as a result of the emerging disease of white-nose syndrome. The loss of bats to white-nose syndrome has largely occurred during the past 4 years, after the disease first appeared in upstate New York. Since then, the fungus thought to cause white-nose syndrome has spread southward and westward and has now been found in 16 states and 3 Canadian provinces. Bat declines in the Northeast, the most severely affected region in the U.S. thus far, have exceeded 70 percent. Populations of at least one species, the little brown bat, have declined so precipitously that scientists expect the species to disappear from the region within the next 20 years. Scientists are also concerned with the potential for losses of certain species of migratory bats at wind-energy facilities. By one estimate, published by Kunz and colleagues in 2007, about 33,000 to 111,000 bats will die each year by 2020 just in the mountainous region of the Mid-Atlantic Highlands from direct collisions with wind turbines as well as lung damage caused by pressure changes bats experience when flying near moving turbine blades. The issue raised by the authors is that the impacts on bat populations from white nose syndrome and wind turbines are just beginning to interact and might result in economic consequences. We hope that our analysis gets people thinking more about the value of bats and why their conservation is important, said Gary McCracken, a University of Tennessee professor and co-author of the analysis. The bottom line is that the natural pest-control services provided by bats save farmers a lot of money. The authors conclude that solutions to reduce threats to bat populations may be possible in the coming years, but that such work is most likely to be driven by public support that will require a wider awareness of the benefits of insectivorous bats. The article, Economic importance of bats in agriculture, appears in the April 1 edition of Science. Authors are J.G. Boyles, P. Cryan, G. McCracken and T. Kunz.
• Deadly White-Nose Syndrome threatens bats in Buckeye State published on Mar 28, 2011
  Ohio bats are happily hibernating, but a fatal syndrome targeting the winged mammals could soon strike.Its knocking on Ohios door right now, said Greg Turner, an endangered-mammal specialist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Lawrence County has four confirmed sites just miles from the Ohio border.
• White Nose Syndrome Confirmed published on Mar 11, 2011
  Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologists have confirmed that White-nose Syndrome (WNS) has been found in an abandoned mine complex in western Washington County. The mine complex serves as an important bat hibernacula, or bat hibernation site. WNS is a malady causing unprecedented bat mortality across the eastern United States. Affected bats display a white fungal growth on their muzzles or other exposed skin.
• Silent bat killer creeps closer to Illinois published on Mar 04, 2011
  Wildlife officials have sounded the all-clear for white-nose syndrome in Illinois for this year, but after several bats tested positive for white-nose syndrome in south central Indiana last month, its just a matter of time before the deadly fungus will spread to the Land of Lincoln.
• Tackling Wildlife Disease (Podcast) published on Feb 23, 2011
  Susan Bence is WUWMs environmental reporter. She produced our piece on the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison. The NWHC is where the leading work on White-Nose Syndrome in bats is taking place.
• Strange disease is killing Virginia's bats published on Feb 14, 2011
  Death showed its face right away.As scientists approached Hamilton Cave to check on the bats inside, they found the body of one wedged in a crack outside the cave's mouth.The bat's nose was white, as if the thumb-sized animal had poked its gargoyle face into flour."The first white-nose victim at Hamilton Cave," geologist Wil Orndorff said somberly.
• White Nose Syndrome Spreads to Bats in 2 More States published on Feb 10, 2011
  With new discoveries of white nose syndrome, the mysterious bat disease, in Indiana and North Carolina, the scourge has now been documented in 16 states and two Canadian provinces, from New Hampshire to Oklahoma, according to the accounting of the Center for Biological Diversity. Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/white-nose-syndrome-map#ixzz1DbPDJspU
• The Desperate Battle Against Killer Bat Plague published on Dec 08, 2010
  Its a postcard October morning at Kentuckys Carter Caves state park. Sycamore and hickory have already turned orange, and the sun crests ancient Appalachian slopes against a cloudless sky. With Halloween a few days away, a life-sized Elvis dummy peeks out a visitor center window. Middle schoolers on a field trip are coming down one of the trails, preceded by their laughter.The idyll is complete but for two details: All but two of the parks caves are permanently shut to the public, and in the parking lot are six researchers in Tyvek bodysuits and gloves, like extras from Outbreak.The caves are closed, and bodysuits required, because of White Nose Syndrome, a bat-killing disease more virulent than any other disease in the known history of mammals. As the children walk to their bus, I wonder if theyll remember this morning as adults, and tell their own kids about a time when bats lived in caves. Whats wrong with the bats? a girl asks, her tour guides having kept the day shadow-free. Theyre sick, I say.
• Bat Crash published on Dec 01, 2010
  On the outskirts of Madison, Wisconsin, stands a low brick structure equipped with ventilation scrubbers and surrounded by a tall chain-link fence: the Tight Isolation Building of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC), a federal research facility devoted to combating wildlife diseases. Inside, a cinder block corridor circuits the Animal Isolation Wing, passing a series of well-sealed experiment rooms, each visible through a thick window. One room is furnished with sawdust and burrowlike pipes to approximate the habitat for prairie dogs involved in a vaccine trial against Yersinia pestis, the organism that causes plague. In another room zebra finches in birdcages are playing a role in research toward a vaccine for West Nile virus. Two rooms are darkened, for the comfort of hibernating bats. The first contains normal animals of the species Myotis lucifugus, commonly called little brown bats. They are the controls. The second dark room houses little browns exposed to Geomyces destructans, a filamentous white fungus of unknown origin that first appeared among North American bats in 2006. In just four years, it has hit hibernating bat populations in New York, Vermont, and a growing list of other states and Canadian provinces more lethally than Yersinia pestis hit the peasants of medieval France.
• Proposed rules to protect bat population criticized published on Nov 29, 2010
  Rules designed to slow or stop the spread of the deadly bat disease known as white-nose syndrome into Wisconsin were attacked by critics Monday as being too heavy-handed, especially for commercial operators who could be required to seal off their caves from bats.
• Does a White Nose Belie a Wing Load of Problems? More on WNS published on Nov 29, 2010
  In a recent post, I wrote about White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) in hibernating bats in North America. WNS was first documented on February 2006, by a recreational caver exploring Howes Cave in New York, who photographed a bat with an unusual white growth on its muzzle. In the few years since that picture was snapped, hundreds of thousands of bats in North America have died from
• Decline of little brown bats 'definitely worsening' published on Nov 06, 2010
  The catastrophic drop in the little brown bat population is continuing, with the numbers down 50 percent from last summer and 80 percent from 2008, according to the results of New Jersey's annual summer bat count. The dramatic declines are due to a fungus that attacks the bats during their winter hibernation in caves and abandoned mines. The outbreak is called white-nose syndrome for a white fuzz the fungus produces on the nose, ears and wing membranes of infected bats.
• When a Cold, Wet, White Nose Isnt a Good Thing published on Nov 03, 2010
  On February 16, 2006, a recreational caver exploring Howes Cave in Albany, New York, photographed a bat with an unusual white growth on its muzzle. In the few years since that picture was snapped, hundreds of thousands of bats in North America have died from White-Nose Syndrome (WNS; 1,2).
• DNA-based detection of the fungal pathogen Geomyces destructans in soil from bat hibernacula published on Oct 07, 2010
  White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging disease causing unprecedented morbidity and mortality among bats in eastern North America. The disease is characterized by cutaneous infection of hibernating bats by the psychrophilic fungus, Geomyces destructans. Detection of G. destructans in environments occupied by bats will be critical for WNS surveillance, management, and characterization of the fungal lifecycle. We initiated an rRNA gene region-based molecular survey to characterize the distribution of G. destructans in soil samples collected from bat hibernacula in the eastern United States using an existing PCR test. Although this test did not specifically detect G. destructans in soil samples based on a presence/absence metric, it did favor amplification of DNA from putative Geomyces species. Cloning and sequencing of PCR products amplified from 24 soil samples revealed 74 unique sequence variants representing 12 clades. Clones with exact sequence matches to G. destructans were identified in three of 19 soil samples from hibernacula in states where WNS is known to occur. Geomyces destructans was not identified in an additional five samples collected outside of the region where WNS has been documented. This study highlights the diversity of putative Geomyces spp. in soil from bat hibernacula and indicates that further research is needed to better define the taxonomy of this genus and to develop enhanced diagnostic tests for rapid and specific detection of G. destructans in environmental samples.
• Mysterious Bat-Killing Disease Appears Harmless in Europe published on Sep 20, 2010
  Almost four years after bats in the Eastern United States began awakening from their winter slumber only to die en masse, the mechanism by which the so-called white-nose syndrome kills remains a mystery. The fungus associated with it, however, appears to have a European connection, scientists now say. Reports of European bats sporting the white puffs of fungi on their muzzles, which are the signature of white-nose syndrome in the United States, date back to the early 1980s. But no one paid much attention, because it was not associated with mass mortalities, according to Gudrun Wibbelt, a veterinary pathologist with the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin.
• Scientists Find Drugs That May Fight Bat Disease published on Sep 13, 2010
  Scientists may have found some ways to help the nation's bats, which are being wiped out by a novel fungal disease.Lab tests show that several drugs can fight the germ and that some antiseptics might help decontaminate areas where bats live or the shoes and hands of people who visit them, researchers reported at an infectious-diseases conference Sunday."Both of those are critical elements. The decontamination is in my mind the most immediate need," because people may be helping to spread the disease, called white-nose syndrome, said Jeremy Coleman, who heads the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's response to the problem.
• Bats at risk of extinction published on Aug 05, 2010
  Using population data from the past 30 years to estimate growth trends before the emergence of WNS, bat ecologist Thomas Kunz of Boston University and his colleagues modeled how the disease has affected little brown bat populations (one of seven species affected by the disease) and predicted the fate of this species over the next 100 years.Read more: Bats at risk of extinction - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57608/#ixzz0vq8jAmMV
• Fungus Likely to Wipe Out Common Bat in Northeast United States published on Aug 05, 2010
  Now, researchers report in the 6 August issue of Science that the rate of decline is so severe it could cause one bat species to vanish from the northeastern United States within 16 years, potentially hurting agriculture and forests.
• Many West and Midwest caves, mines to close to fight bat disease published on Jul 24, 2010
  Hikers may be locked out of hundreds of caves and 30,000 abandoned mines in the West and Midwest in a government plan to protect bat from man.The cave closings may come within the week, said Forest Service spokeswoman Janelle Smith, and are the latest efforts to combat a disease called white nose syndrome that has devastated bat communities in 13 states and two Canadian provinces. The disease, perhaps caused by a fungus, may spread to more states as hikers and tourists inadvertently carry spores on their clothing, Smith said.The loss of swaths of the bat population may threaten corn and soybean crops and other parts of the agriculture and timber industries, said Mollie Matteson, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Ariz. Bats help control insect pests, eating as much as two-thirds of their body weight per night, said Holly Ober, assistant professor at the University of Florida in Quincy, Fla., in a 2008 Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation document.
• Shutting down the batcave published on Jul 15, 2010
  Like some nightmarish scene from a horror film, bats have been dying by the millions from a pervasive, infectious fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. As Madeline Bodin relates in her recent HCN story "Bracing for White-Nose Syndrome" the fungus looks like powder on the faces and wings of bats and kills them by driving them out of hibernation so they freeze or starve. Because bats play such a big role in controlling insects, snapping up literally tons of mosquitoes and other flying bugs every night, the continued demise of bats would be felt outside the caves where they roost and hibernate.
• White-Nose Syndrome Fungus Found on a Different Bat Species in Virginia published on Jun 30, 2010
  Chesterfield, VA A sick bat found in Pocahontas State Park has tested positive for a fungus indicating White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), the disease killing bats from New Hampshire to Virginia and Tennessee. This is the first occurrence of the fungus detected in this bat species, southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius), which is found in only a few counties in southeast Virginia. The U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, found the bat to be positive for the fungus but was unable to confirm WNS, calling it "likely" to be infected.
• Deadly fungus spreads to ninth North American bat species published on Jun 15, 2010
  The deadly fungal infection that afflicts bats known as white-nose syndrome (WNS) has now been found on another U.S. bat species, the ninth since the infection was first observed four years ago. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, WNS has now beset 20 percent of North America's bat species.
• DEP: Outlook for Connecticuts bats is bleak published on Apr 26, 2010
  A syndrome that attacks hibernating bats continues to kill them at alarming rates both in Connecticut and in expanding areas range-wide, which will lead to a dramatic reduction in the size of the states bat population this summer, according to wildlife experts at the state Department of Environmental Protection.
• Fungus blamed for reducing bats in Rockaway Twp. cave from 27,000 to 1,700 published on Apr 06, 2010
  ROCKAWAY TWP. -- White-nose syndrome has claimed 90 percent of the bats that hibernate in Hibernia Mine, New Jersey's largest hibernaculum, according to a state Department of Environmental Protection official.Scientists counted just 1,753 bats in the mine during a Feb. 14 visit, a dramatic drop from the more than 27,000 that typically spend their winter there, said Mick Valent, principal zoologist with the state's Endangered and Non-game Species Program."We hoped we wouldn't see that, but it's not entirely surprising,'' said Valent, who has been documenting the decline in the state's bat population since white nose syndrome first appeared here in 2008. "It's a good indication of what's happening there and elsewhere.''
• Video: Biologists discover deadly bat disease in Md. Cave published on Mar 11, 2010
  
• Bat disease suspected in Cumberland area cave published on Mar 10, 2010
  
• Bat Disease Turns Up In Cave In Maryland published on Mar 10, 2010
  
• Biologists discover deadly bat disease in Md. Cave published on Mar 10, 2010
  Biologists have found what they believe is the first evidence that Maryland bats are now infected with white nose syndrome, a deadly fungal disease that has killed more than a million hibernating bats since 2006, devastating colonies from New England to Virginia.A state biologist conducting a bat survey last Friday found dead and weakened bats in a cave on private property near Cumberland, the Department of Natural Resources reported Wednesday. About three-quarters of the winged mammals had the tell-tale white fungus on their muzzles and other exposed skin."It's likely going to kill a majority of them before spring," said Dan Feller, the western region DNR biologist who found them. Typically, once the disease is established in a colony, 90 percent of the bats are gone by the second year.
• Deadly bat disease moves closer to Shoals published on Feb 24, 2010
  Biologists fear a disease that has sickened bats from Tennessee to New York could make its way to north Alabama within a year.Click to enlarge An Eastern pipistrelle bat in a Lauderdale County cave. White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that is typically fatal to bats, has been found in northeast Tennessee. In recent years, the disease has moved south about 175 miles each summer, which could put it in northeast Alabama as early as next winter."Unfortunately, I'm afraid that it's inevitable that white-nose syndrome is going to show up somewhere in Alabama. We just don't know exactly where it will be found or when," said Allison Cochran, district wildlife biologist for Bankhead National Forest.Bill Gates, biologist for the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge System, which includes Key Cave Wildlife Refuge in the Shoals, expects the disease to be found in Alabama this spring or next. The disease may not become apparent until bats begin emerging from hibernation in the spring.
• White nose syndrome found in bats in Sullivan County cave published on Feb 18, 2010
  BLUFF CITY Closing public caves in 2009 didnt stop white nose syndrome from entering Tennessee, as wildlife officials this week announced a discovery of the fatal bat fungus in Sullivan County.The disease that has killed thousands of bats in the Eastern United States was confirmed to be found in bats removed from Worleys Cave located outside of Bluff City earlier this month, a release from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said.
• First cases of White Nose Syndrome found in Tenn. Bats published on Feb 16, 2010
  NASHVILLE The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has received confirmation that two bats have tested positive for White Nose Syndrome, a white fungus responsible for the deaths of thousands of bats in the eastern U.S.This is the first record of White Nose Syndrome in Tennessee.The bats were hibernating in Worleys cave in Sullivan County. Three tri-colored bats were collected by the state wildlife resources agency and submitted to the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. for testing last week.Last spring the state of Tennessee, National Park Service, and USDA Forest Service and Tennessee Valley Authority closed caves on public lands in Tennessee in an attempt to slow the spread of the fungus. The Nature Conservancy also closed caves located on their lands in Tennessee.
• TWRA confirms first cases of White Nose Syndrome in Tennessee bats published on Feb 16, 2010
  NASHVILLE --- The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) has received confirmation that two bats have tested positive for White Nose Syndrome (WNS), a white fungus that is responsible for the deaths of thousands of bats in the Eastern United States. This is the first record of White Nose Syndrome in Tennessee. The bats were hibernating in Worleys cave in Sullivan County. Three tri-colored bats were collected by the TWRA and submitted to the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) in Madison, Wis. for testing last week.
• Bats given anti-fungal treatments for white-nose published on Feb 10, 2010
  ALBANY, N.Y.Researchers trying to slow the spread of a scourge that has killed more than a million bats are testing anti-fungal solutions in a hard-hit hibernation cave on the edge of the Adirondacks. Discuss COMMENTS (0) Biologists with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation hope that topical anti-fungal solutions applied to about 250 hibernating bats will combat white-nose syndrome, which is named for the sugary looking smudges of fungus on sick bats' noses and wings.It's widely believed that the fungus, which thrives in cold, damp hibernation caves, causes white-nose. Bats roused from hibernation appear to be burning through their winter fat too quickly.
• Fatal bat syndrome spreads in Vermont published on Feb 07, 2010
  BENNINGTON -- An illness that state biologists believe is killing off the bat population is spreading north. Ryan Smith, a biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, said Wednesday that White Nose Syndrome (WNS) was first discovered in Vermont two years ago in Dorset. "Although reports are concentrated around Johnson at this time, we are also receiving scattered reports from other sections of the state," he said. "Unfortunately, WNS has continued to spread north, and we expect to receive more reports of abnormal bat activity from the northern half of the state. Last winter reports were concentrated in southern Vermont, but bat populations there have been devastated over the past two winters."
• Delaware wildlife: In search of winter bats published on Feb 05, 2010
  A mysterious fungus is killing colonies in nearby states; Is it happening in Del.? Holly Niederriter laid back and slid between a hill of damp sand and a solid wall of concrete."Oh, it doesn't smell very good," she said.She turned on her head lamp and moved through the tiny opening into a sealed off World War II bunker at Cape Henlopen State Park.Niederriter, a state wildlife biologist, and two biological aides, were looking for hibernating bats -- the first effort of its kind in a region that has been struggling to better understand a troubling fungus that is blamed for massive bat die-offs in neighboring states.
• As white-nose syndrome wipes out little brown bats, groups petition for emergency protection published on Jan 28, 2010
  More than one million bats have been killed by the deadly fungal infection known as white-nose syndrome (WNS) since the condition first turned up in 2006. One of the hardest hit species, the once-common little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), might now face extinction as a result of the disease. As a result, scientists and conservation groups filed an emergency request on December 16 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to protect the little brown bat under the Endangered Species Act.