Actually, there has been quite a bit of recent research about the
white fungus found on bats, and it's been published. Please see the
following article published in Science:
Originally published in Science Express on 30 October 2008
Science 9 January 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5911, p. 227
DOI: 10.1126/science.1163874
Bat White-Nose Syndrome: An Emerging Fungal Pathogen?
David S. Blehert,1* Alan C. Hicks,2 Melissa Behr,3
Carol U. Meteyer,1 Brenda M. Berlowski-Zier,1Elizabeth L. Buckles,4
Jeremy T. H. Coleman,5 Scott R. Darling,6 Andrea Gargas,7 Robyn Niver,
5Joseph C. Okoniewski,2 Robert J. Rudd,3 Ward B. Stone2
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a condition associated with an
unprecedented bat mortality event in the northeastern United States.
Since the winter of 2006*2007, bat declines exceeding 75% have been
observed at surveyed hibernacula. Affected bats often present with
visually striking white fungal growth on their muzzles, ears, and/or
wing membranes. Direct microscopy and culture analyses demonstrated
that the skin of WNS-affected bats is colonized by a psychro-philic
fungus that is phylogeneticallyrelated to Geomyces spp. but with a
conidial morphology distinct from characterized members of this genus.
This report characterizes the cutaneous fungal infection associated
with WNS.
1 National Wildlife Health Center, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 6006
Schroeder Road, Madison, WI 53711, USA.
2 New York Department of Environmental Conservation, 625 Broadway,
Albany, NY 12233, USA.
3 New York Department of Health, Post Office Box 22002, Albany, NY
12201, USA.
4 Cornell University, VRT T6008, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
5 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 3817 Luker Road, Cortland, NY 13045,
USA.
6 Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, 271 North Main Street,
Rutland, VT 05701, USA.
7 Symbiology Limited Liability Corporation, Middleton, WI 53562, USA.
Present address: Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, 445
Easterday Lane, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]
Anyone who wishes a copy of this article as a PDF, write to me
personally and I will forward it to you. There are some cool photos of
what the fungus is doing to the poor little critters.
Diana
On Mar 6, 2009, at 9:31 AM, Jim Kennedy wrote:
Absolutely not!!!! Conservation money is in extremely short supply
right now, in this uncertain economy. Bat conservation is an even
lower
funding priority than almost everything else I can think of. One of
the
biggest hurdles in figuring out what is killing off 90% of all the
bats
in the East (and soon, likely, the rest of the country), is the LACK
of
money for necessary research. In fact, some of the very questions
being
asked (such as "Are the bats going in to hibernation with adequate
body
weight, or are they starving even before entering hibernation?" and
"Is
this fungus actually a new species, or is it widespread and just never
identified until now?") are pretty simple baseline types of
information
that we should have been collecting for years, if only we had
unlimited
budgets to do the research to answer those kinds of questions. But
the
reality is that we do not, and will not in the foreseeable future.
Even
in Texas I can't tell you how many bats of what species we have in our
caves, because NO ONE IS DOING THAT RESEARCH. Even for the big,
popular
freetail caves that obviously contribute to our environmental well-
being
as well as our economic health, we only have a rough idea of numbers
and
no clue about whether those populations are stable, declining, or
(unlikely) increasing. For other species, even the common cave
myotis,
entire cave populations could be disappearing and we wouldn't even
know.
So whatever efforts are being tried to stem the tide of WNS mortality,
you can bet there is at least a pretty good chance that it has a good
chance of success. We don't have the luxury of trying ideas that we
know are foolish.
Jim "Crash" Kennedy
Cave Resources Specialist
Bat Conservation International
... and passionate lover of all caves and their contents
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Bentley-Webmail [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 8:35 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] RE: heaters for bats
I think it is more about feeling good, than actually doing good...
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Diana R. Tomchick
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Department of Biochemistry
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
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Email: [email protected]
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