UpDate: White-Nose Syndrome in Bats

WHITE NOSE SYNDROME, BATS - FRANCE: 1st IDENTIFICATION, NON-LETHAL
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Date: Fri 8 Jan 2010
Source: Science, Vol. 327. no. 5962, p. 132 [edited]

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Europe's Bats Resist Fungal Scourge of North America
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The same fungus that has devastated bat colonies in the northeastern
United States has been identified for the 1st time in Europe -- in a
healthy bat. "The astonishing thing is that [the fungus] affects
North American bats so devastatingly, but that European bats can get
along with it," says Christian Voigt, a bat physiologist at the
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin.

White-nose syndrome was 1st identified in a cave in upstate New York
in 2006. Since then, it has spread across 9 states and caused
unprecedented mortalities. Affected bats emerge from hibernation too
frequently and lose body fat, and many starve to death. Last year, a
group led by microbiologist David Blehert of the U.S. Geological
Survey in Madison, Wisconsin, identified the fungus associated with
the syndrome as _Geomyces destructans_, but many puzzles remain about
the nature of the disease, such as whether the bats' immune systems
were compromised (Science, 29 May 2009, p. 1134).

European researchers watched the U.S. outbreak with alarm. "I
thought, 'Oh my God, we've got a huge nightmare on our hands,'"
recalls Kate Jones of the Zoological Society of London. So far, no
mass casualties have been detected among Europe's species, but
researchers did find anecdotal reports of bats with white fungus that
no one had paid attention to previously.

On 12 Mar [2009], Sebastien Puechmaille of University College Dublin
(UCD) spotted a mouse-eared bat (_Myotis myotis_) covered with fungus
in a cave 130 km [80 miles] northeast of Bordeaux, France.
Microscopic examination of the spores and 2 molecular markers showed
that it was _G. destructans_, the team reported online 29 Dec 2009 in
Emerging Infectious Diseases [see commentary]. Another group, led by
Gudrun Wibbelt of IZW, has also identified the fungus in bats from 3
other European countries, none reporting bat deaths. Their results
have been submitted to the same journal.

Now the challenge is to figure out why most European bats are not
infected and why those that are remain healthy -- and whether that
knowledge can be used to help ailing bat populations in the United
States. One scenario is that _G. destructans_ has been present in
Europe for a long time, and European bat species have evolved
immunity, says Emma Teeling of UCD, the senior author of the December
paper. Or perhaps the fungus evolved greater virulence after arriving
in North America, a possibility that could be investigated with
further sequencing.

Whatever the explanation, the European reports are "great news," says
Alan Hicks, a mammal specialist with New York's Department of
Environmental Conservation in Albany, [New York], who has charted the
decline of the state's once-massive bat colonies. Eventually, an
understanding of these differences could help lead to the development
of a vaccine or treatments for endangered bats, Blehert says.
Meanwhile, researchers are beginning once again to survey hibernating
bats in the Northeast United States. Hicks says the signs so far are
that deaths are continuing.

[Byline: Erik Stokstad]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail


[The on-line published paper is:
Sebastien J. Puechmaille, Pascal Verdeyroux, Hubert Fuller, Meriadeg
Ar Gouilh, Michael Bekaert, and Emma C. Teeling. White-nose syndrome
fungus (Geomyces destructans) in bat, France. Emerg Infect Dis. 2010
Feb; [Epub ahead of print].
. -Mod.AS]

[see also:
2009
----
White nose syndrome, bats - USA (14) 20091014.3538
White nose syndrome, bats - USA (13): (NJ) 20090712.2495
White nose syndrome, bats - USA (12) 20090510.1750
White nose syndrome, bats - USA (11) 20090510.1743
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (10): cave closings 20090507.1703
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (09): (VA)susp. 20090427.1590
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (08): (MA) 20090414.1413
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (07) 20090320.1110
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (06): (PA) RFI 20090311.1011
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (05): (PA) 20090309.0975
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (04): (PA) 20090306.0931
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (03): (WV) susp 20090220.0711
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (02): (northeast) 20090208.0578
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA: (Northeast) 20090129.0401
2008
---
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (07): (Northeast) 20081102.3448
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (06): (Northeast) 20080331.1195
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (05): (Northeast) 20080304.0898
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (04): (Northeast) 20080304.0880
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (03): 2004 Dorset bat colony gate 20080221.0709
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (02): (Northeast) 20080220.0687
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA: (Northeast) 20080219.0675]]
....................arn/ejp/dk

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