Scientists Confirm WNS in European Bats
David A. Riggs
time White-Nose Syndrome *the disease* in European bats, which have
previously been known to show presence of Geomyces destructans *the
fungus*. This is extremely significant, as it could indicate that some
European bats are merely resilient against WNS, but not resistant.
The USFWS blog has a guest article by a USGS scientist discussing this
recent finding:
http://whitenosebats.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/guest-blog-meteyer/
"Scientists confirmed white-nose syndrome (WNS) in hibernating bats
from the Czech Republic. These findings, reported in the Journal of
Wildlife Diseases, are the first documentation that G. destructans can
cause disease in bats of Europe. White fungal growth on the muzzles of
hibernating bats in Europe has been observed for almost 3 decades.
Over the past few years, samples of the white fungal growth from bats
in 12 European countries were identified as G. destructans. Until now,
however, it was unknown whether this fungus caused disease in European
bats."
I have not seen the original journal article, and this blog posting
does not specify to what extent WNS was determined to be present (how
extensive was the mortality involved?).
- DR
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David A. Riggs <david....@gmail.com>