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Albany, NY – Scientists studying white nose syndrome in bats estimate the fungal ailment has killed at least 5.7 million bats in 16 states and Canada, providing alarming new numbers about the scope of its decimation. WAMC's Tristan O'Neill reports...
First detected in a cave west of Albany in 2006, white nose has spread to 16 states from the Northeast to the South and as far west as Kentucky. It also has been detected in four Canadian provinces.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday released the new estimate.
"The evidence now suggests the fungus arrived from Europe, so in one sense, it's human movement that was responsible for this being an issue in the first place, and this is one of the consequences of globalized travel."
Rick Ostfeld is a senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies...
"People move species around. In this case, it happens to be a species that's absolutely devastating to bats in North America. They've never experienced it before. They're immunologically completely naive and they just get clobbered. And we're likely to see the extinction of the little brown bat, which was one of the most common mammals in the Eastern U.S. within the next several decades - all from an introduced pathogen from afar."
Researchers say bats provide tremendous value to the U.S. economy as natural pest control for farms and forests, while playing an essential role in helping control insects that can spread disease to people.
Tristan O'Neill, WAMC News.