(Host) White Nose Syndrome, a mysterious illness affecting bats in the Northeast, has been spreading this winter. Now scientists are racing to protect populations all along the east coast before it’s too late. VPR’s Jane Lindholm reports.
(Lindholm) Two winters ago, White Nose Syndrome had only been discovered in New York State. Last winter there were four affected states. This winter, eight states are reporting the devastating illness in their hibernating bat populations, from New Hampshire to New Jersey and West Virginia. And there is no end in sight.
Vermont Fish and Wildlife biologist Scott Darling describes the scene at the large Aeolus Cave in Dorset.
(Darling) "The first thing you notice is the smell of dead animals-they are beginning to decompose. And you’ll see basically large piles of dead bats. I would estimate between 10 and 20 thousand dead bats on the cave floor."
(Lindholm) Darling says his team canceled studies at the cave because it was inhumane to have to step on so many carcasses. But they did collect about 400 bat samples to send to the American museum of Natural History.
(Darling) "We think it was important that we had an archive of the genetics of that bat population that has hibernated in that cave for, gee, over 10,000 years. Five years from now if bat populations were almost non-existent in Aeolus cave we would have been kicking ourselves for not taking a sample of that bat population when we could have."
(Lindholm) One common factor in sick bats was discovered bats this summer. They were all infected with a cold-loving fungus called Geomyces. But so far, scientists have been unable to determine conclusively whether the fungus is a cause or a symptom of the illness. In fact, scientists are still struggling to understand the disease-what causes it, how it’s transferred, and why it affects *some caves and not others. But more than 25 organizations around the country are collaborating on studies and research. One critical study involves exposing healthy bats in Wisconsin to sick bats from New York in a controlled environment.
(Darling) "And there are three different types of treatments that these bats are undergoing. Just having the New York bats in with the Wisconsin bats. Another refrigerator has Wisconsin bats that have had abrasions put on their skin to see if in fact that is what is required to transmit. And in another case the animals are actually vaccinated with a mixture of the fungus."
(Lindholm) Scientists hope the results of this study later this spring will help them determine if the fungus is the factor responsible for transmission from sick to healthy bats. That should help researchers know where to focus their efforts.
In the meantime there are calls by some scientists to trap-and thereby kill-all the bats in affected caves to prevent transmission. But Scott Darling worries that potentially healthy bats resistant to the syndrome-which could help revive the population later on-could be killed.
He says right now it’s a race against time. And he says that unless effective treatments can start soon, Vermont may lose that race.
(Darling) "The rest of the Eastern United States anyways and maybe if not the entire United States, they *really are in a race in time to contain WNS, figure out what the cause is and preclude it from happening to those bat populations there."
(Lindholm) For VPR news, I’m Jane Lindholm.
Vermont Edition video on Bat White Nose Syndrome from 2008