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[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

This is now occuring in the NE, NY, PA, etc., but could spread nationwide.  
As everyone on this list knows, we need bats

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 Bat-killing syndrome spreads in Northeast

Scientists are trying to keep the disorder from decimating bat populations

Mike Groll / AP

Scott Crocoll holds a dead Indiana bat in an abandoned mine in Rosendale, 
N.Y., Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009. White nose syndrome is killing more bats over a 
larger area this winter, reaching south into New Jersey and Pennsylvania and 
leaving caves in hard-hit areas like New York with decimated bat populations. 
 

  

updated 7:45 p.m. MT, Tues., Feb. 3, 2009

ROSENDALE, N.Y. - A mysterious and deadly bat disorder discovered just two 
winters ago in a few New York caves has now spread to at least six 
northeastern states, and scientists are scrambling to find solutions before 
it spreads across the country.

White-nose syndrome poses no health threat to people, but some scientists say 
that if bat populations diminish too much, the insects and crop pests they 
eat could flourish. Researchers recently identified the fungus that creates 
the syndrome's distinctive white smudges on the noses and wings of 
hibernating bats, but they don't yet know how to stop the disorder from 
killing off caves full of the ecologically important animals.

"The cause for concern is that this is going to race across the country 
faster than we can come up with a solution," said Alan Hicks, a wildlife 
biologist with New York state's Department of Environmental Conservation.

"Now that is entirely possible."


Many die in search for food

Bats with white-nose burn through their fat stores before spring, driving 
some to rouse early from hibernation in a futile search for food. Many die as 
they hunt fruitlessly for insects.

White-nose syndrome spread fast last winter to dozens of caves in New York 
and southern New England, within a roughly 150-mile radius of the caves west 
of Albany, N.Y., where it was first found. Early observations show it has 
reached farther still this winter, even before cave inspections and bat 
counts begin in earnest this month.

Bats with white-nose syndrome were found recently in northern New Jersey's 
Morris County and in an old iron mine in Shindle, Pa., more than 200 miles 
away from the outbreak's epicenter. In addition, the Pennsylvania Game 
Commission on Tuesday said that hundreds of little brown bats, a species 
devastated by white-nose syndrome, were found dead from the disorder outside 
two mines in the northeastern part of the state.

The syndrome may have spread as far as 450 miles from the epicenter, to the 
John Guilday Caves Nature Preserve in West Virginia. The National 
Speleological Society has temporarily shut down the preserve as a possible 
white-nose sighting is investigated.

So far, there are 40 confirmed white-nose sites in the Northeast, said Jeremy 
Coleman, who is tracking the disorder for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
office in Cortland, N.Y.

Death tolls for the tiny creatures are hard to pinpoint, but some estimates 
run into the hundreds of thousands.

Number of bats are down

The news was grim on a recent day when more than a dozen researchers lowered 
themselves by rope into a sprawling old limestone mine in New York's Hudson 
Valley, about 80 miles north of New York City.

Bat counter Ryan von Linden's headlamp swept across isolated clusters of the 
mammals hanging off the rock ceiling. A chorus of squeaks echoed in the 
blackness.

"There are not as many as there are supposed to be," von Linden whispered. 
"Not even close."

With a precise total pending, Hicks estimated the cave's count of Indiana 
bats, an endangered species, was down 15 to 35 percent from last year's 
roughly 19,000. Researchers said the number of little brown bats also 
appeared to be down, although they didn't have enough specifics from prior 
years to measure the drop exactly.

Hoping to glean more information on the syndrome, the researchers plucked 14 
groggy little brown bats from the rock, weighed them, measured them, snipped 
a bit of their hair and stuck tiny radio transmitters to them to track their 
activity levels.

Bats' nocturnal habits and some species' ability to carry rabies can give the 
flying mammals a fearsome image. But they can pollinate plants and play an 
important role in checking the populations of mosquitoes and insects that can 
damage wheat, apples and dozens of other crops.

Looking at ways to combat fungus

Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey's Wildlife Health Center this fall 
established that the sugary smudges on infected bats are a previously 
undescribed fungus that thrives in the refrigerator-like cold of winter 
caves. The center is still working to determine whether the fungus causes the 
disorder, but biologists are already focusing on potential ways to combat the 
fungus.

Since the fungus grows in the cold and damp, they could try to lower humidity 
levels in at least some crucial caves, though that could create other 
problems for those ecosystems.



Researchers also are looking at the possibility of a fungicide or even 
fungus-killing bacteria that could spread from bat to bat. Ward Stone, New 
York state's wildlife pathologist, said he has been able to culture bacteria 
that live on big brown bats and kill the white-nose fungus in a lab.

Tests need to be performed to see whether any of the options are realistic. 
And time is "our biggest enemy," said David Blehert, head of microbiology at 
the USGS center in Madison, Wis.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29005011/