Fungus Behind Deadly Bat Disease Found in Northern California
The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, a disease that since 2006 has been killing millions of bats as it makes a westward journey across the United States, has been detected in California, the Los Angeles Times reports. Scientists conducting surveillance found infected bats in the northern California town of Chester, situated between the Lassen Volcanic National Park and the Plumas National Forest.
The infected bats, which the surveillance team swabbed for the fungus in 2018 and 2019, represent the first cases in California, according to the White-Nose Syndrome Response Team of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. They are Yuma bats (Myotis yumanensis) and little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus). The scientists have not yet observed bats with the disease itself in the state, however.
“We all thought we were going to have more time before it got this far west,” Winifred Frick, a University of California, Santa Cruz, biologist and chief scientist with Bat Conservation International, tells the LA Times. “We should all be very concerned about this heartbreaking discovery.”
White-nose syndrome, which gets its name from the hoary fluff that appears on the muzzles of sick bats, mostly affects the animals when they’re hibernating, causing them to wake up more frequently than usual, which uses up their fat reserves. The disease has been known to kill 90–100 percent of the bats at an infected site.
Cave explorers first spotted infected bats in Albany, New York, in 2006. Since then, the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, Pseudogymnoascus destrucans (Pd), has been spreading, not only west but also north into Canada and south into the Carolinas. In March 2016, the disease showed up in Washington State, more than 1,000 miles farther west of where it had been spotted previously.
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/fungus-behind-deadly-bat-disease-found-in-northern-california-66111
