Commonly known as white nose syndrome. From our local paper - The Bellingham Herald:
Disease that has decimated bats found in Washington for first time
White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has killed more than six million bats in North America, has been found in Washington state — the first time it has jumped to the western half of the U.S.
“This is somewhat of a game changer,” said Jeremy Coleman, national white-nose syndrome coordinator, on Thursday, March 31. “It was found with kind of an advanced stage of the disease. That does suggest that the fungus has probably been present” for a year or more.
Coleman, with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, was among the state and federal officials who announced that the disease had been found in a little brown bat earlier in March in Washington state. They said the case, with the syndrome’s presence so far confirmed in just one bat, raised many questions for which researchers are trying to find answers.
And this disease is a bad one:
It can kill up to 100 percent of all bats in a hibernating colony. Little brown bats, which had been among the most common bats in North America, have been hit hard by white-nose syndrome elsewhere.
With Washington included, the disease has spread to 28 states and five Canadian provinces.
Here is a map of the outbreaks - you can see why the WA State outbreak is so troubling:
Image from the White Nose Syndrome website.
I love bats - very cool little critters.
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