US Forest Service researchers have identified what may be a key to unraveling some of the mysteries of White Nose Syndrome. Studying the closest non-disease causing relatives of the WNS fungus have allowed scientists to move forward with genetic work to examining the molecular mechanisms this fungus uses to kill bats. These fungi, many of them still without formal Latin names, live in bat hibernation sites and even directly on bats, but they do not cause the devastating disease that kills millions of bats in the eastern US. Researchers hope to use these fungi to understand why one fungus can be deadly to bats while its close relatives are benign.
White Nose Syndrome was first seen in 2006 in New York. Since then, it has spread to 22 states in the US and 5 Canadian provinces and has killed large numbers of hibernating bats, a problem resulting in substantial economic losses. Cumulative declines were 71% for little brown bats, 34% for tricolored bat, 30% in the endangered Indiana bat, and 31% for northern long-eared bats.
Read the full NRS News article HERE.
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