Category Archives: white nose syndrome

White Nose Syndrome in Alabama

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Alabama white nose syndromeWhite nose syndrome was discovered in the Russell Cave complex in Jackson County, Alabama on March 1 by a team of surveyors from Alabama A&M University and the National Park Service and has just been confirmed by Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study unit at the University of Georgia, according to an Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources press release.

The finding was both disappointing and a bit of a surprise because scientists had thought that the South’s shorter winters would curtail the spread of the cold-loving fungus.

According to the Washington Post, no bats were found dead of white nose syndrome in the cave. This suggests a situation similar to the suspected case in Oklahoma (which was not confirmed), where white nose syndrome was found, but did not kill bats.

Alabama has many caves and is home to millions of bats, including the federally endangered gray bat.

The Washington Post article says: “[Alabama] State wildlife biologist Keith Hudson called Alabama the Grand Central Station for the endangered gray bat.”

Read the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources press release here.
Read the Washington Post article here.

Map: Showing the location of the white nose syndrome finding in Alabama. Map by Cal Butchkoski, PA Game Commission, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service

WNS Surveillance Concept

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If your state has not yet been struck by white nose syndrome (WNS), or if you are in an area of your state not yet struck by WNS, you’ve probably needed to develop a system of surveillance that isn’t intrusive on hibernating bats and doesn’t take up a ton of staff time.

The favored method of WNS surveillance — sending staffers to known bat hibernation sites to observe and survey bats — is both intrusive and time consuming.

Scientists from the National Parks Service and the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study describe a new surveillance concept in a letter to the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

To survey the region around Mammoth Cave National Park, the national park service used bats that had previously been collected for rabies testing and had been proven not to have rabies.They narrowed their search by testing only bat species known to be susceptible to WNS and only those collected from November to April, when WNS is more likely to be detectable.

In a pilot test, the technique did detect one WNS-positive bat.

Read the letter to Emerging Infectious Diseases, here.

It’s important to keep in mind that the external parts of the WNS fungus can be brushed off at any contact, so that the tell-tale fuzzy white fungus may not be visible on bats that have been previously handled.

This Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation paper tells you what the lab should be looking for under the microscope. There is also a PCR test for the fungus.

Photo: Bat with white nose syndrome in a mine in Vermont. Courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

WNS Found in Another KY County

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Green = 2011 WNS finding; Red = 2012

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife has announced that it has confirmed white nose syndrome in three caves in the state. Three common bat species in those caves were found to have the syndrome.

Read the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife press release, here.

The caves are in a different county than the one where bats with WNS were found last year. (On our map, last year’s outbreak is in green; this year’s in red.)

The US Fish and Wildlife Service map had not yet been updated at the time we published this, so the map here is our own. Check the official WNS map, here.

White Nose Syndrome Toll at Least 5.7 Million

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White nose syndrome has killed somewhere between 5.7 million to 6.7 million bats, biologists at the Northeast Bat Working Group’s annual meeting in Pennsylvania, which was held last week, estimated. The figures were released Tuesday afternoon.

Read the press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, here.

Not much out there about where these new estimates come from. A Washington Post article says, “The estimate was derived from winter trips to mines and caves through December 2011.” The innovation was counting the bats using digital imagery, rather than “counting noses,” as was done in the past, USFWS WNS coordinator Jeremy Coleman is quoted as saying.

Read the Washington Post article here.

In a Los Angeles Times article, coordination of survey strategies across the United States and Canada is credited for the new estimate.

Read the LA Times article here.

Photo credit: Jonathan Mays, Wildlife Biologist, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

White nose syndrome in Maine

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Bat survey in Maine cave.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has received laboratory results confirming that white nose syndrome, a disease of bats, has been found in two sites in Oxford County. While the nearby states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire were among the first to report white nose syndrome in bats, until this winter, Maine bats had not tested positive for the syndrome.

The sites were white nose syndrome was found are two of only a few bat hibernation sites in the state.

For more information, read the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife press release. Also, this story from the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

Photo credit: Jonathan Mays, Wildlife Biologist, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

White nose syndrome in Nova Scotia

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White nose syndrome has been found in Nova Scotia, the fourth Canadian province to be stricken with the bat disease. The syndrome was detected in a bat found flying in daylight on March 23 in the town of Brooklyn, in Hant County. White nose syndrome had been previously found in Canada in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick.

Alison Whitlock, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Northeast white nose syndrome coordinator mentioned the news during her presentation on the white nose syndrome national plan at the Northeast Fish & Wildlife Conference yesterday.

Find out more from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources press release here. News stories appeared in The Global Saskatoon, The Canadian Press, and Halifax News Net.

White nose syndrome in Nova Scotia

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White nose syndrome has been found in Nova Scotia, the fourth Canadian province to be stricken with the bat disease. The syndrome was detected in a bat found flying in daylight on March 23 in the town of Brooklyn, in Hant County. White nose syndrome had been previously found in Canada in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick.

Alison Whitlock, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Northeast white nose syndrome coordinator mentioned the news during her presentation on the white nose syndrome national plan at the Northeast Fish & Wildlife Conference yesterday.

Find out more from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources press release here. News stories appeared in The Global Saskatoon, The Canadian Press, and Halifax News Net.

White nose syndrome in Kentucky

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Credit: KDFWR

A little brown bat in Trigg County, Kentucky had white nose syndrome. The Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS) in Athens, Georgia confirmed the diagnosis. The bat was found in a privately owned cave in southwest Kentucky, about 30 miles southeast of Paducah, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources reports.

No other infected sites were found in a search of caves within a 16 mile radius of the cave. However, 60 “highly suspect” little brown and tri-colored bats were euthanized. Killing the bats, which were not expected to survive, were among the measures the state took to prevent the spread of white nose syndrome beyond this cave, which is a haven for about 2,000 hibernating bats.

“This is likely the most significant disease threat to wildlife Kentucky has ever seen”, said Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commissioner, Dr. Jonathan Gassett in a press release. “It would be professionally irresponsible to take no action to stop or slow this disease.”

In 2009 Kentucky created a white nose syndrome response plan that included actions to take both before and after the syndrome arrived in the state. Indeed, what makes the Kentucky case unusual is that the state is taking steps to slow or stop the disease and is telling the public about them. We’ll stay tuned to see what happens.

For more information, read the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Resources press release. Or read the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service press release, which appears to be identical. Or, read this report from the Louisville Courier-Journal. A few other local news outlets also have the story.

WNS in North Carolina

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US Fish and Wildlife Service map

Six bats have tested positive for white nose syndrome in North Carolina, according to that state’s Wildlife Resources Commission. Many bats appeared to have the syndrome when researchers surveyed the closed Avery County mine on Feb. 1. Five bats there were collected for testing. One dead bat was found in a cave at Grandfather Mountain State Park, also during a bat inventory, this one in late January.

Read the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission press release here.

Go here for a link to the US Fish and Wildlife Service map of White Nose Syndrome occurrences. (Map is on the bottom of page, right-hand side.)

White nose syndrome in Indiana

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Researchers found two bats that appeared to be stricken with white nose syndrome while doing a winter survey of Endless Cave in Washington County, in southern Indiana. This Indiana TV station says the disease was confirmed in one of the bats. However, when last checked, the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s map (at bottom of page) still showed the incident as a suspected case of white nose syndrome. It may be updated by the time you read this.

In other white nose syndrome news, the cover story of the journal Conservation Biology examines white nose syndrome. The researchers conclude that culling sick bats won’t stop the spread of the disease.