White-Nose Disease Confirmed In Alabama Bat Populations - Has Already Killed Minimum Of 7 Million
A relentless disease that has killed nearly 7 million bats is now in Alabama, a cradle for millions of endangered gray bats. The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources announced Wednesday that lab tests confirmed the presence of white-nose syndrome, found on bats in the Russell Cave complex in Jackson County.
The news dashed the hopes of some wildlife biologists who thought the cold-craving disease would never reach so far south.
Six years have passed since the disease, linked to an aggressive fungus called Geomyces destructans, was first detected at Howes Cave near Albany, N.Y. In Northeast states, the mortality rate for some species of bats has stood at about 100 percent. Officials are worried that the common little brown bat, the northern long-eared bat and the tricolored bat will not survive.
In January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a report saying up to 6.7 million bats had been killed by white-nose syndrome in about 12 states and four Canadian provinces. White-nose was detected in Alabama on March 2 and confirmed days later, officials said.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/white-nose-fungus-reaches-bats-in-alabama-to-biologists-dismay/2012/03/13/gIQArUUiBS_story.html
