White Nose Syndrome Research Paper

White Nose Syndrome In caves across the country a fungus has festering within bats causing the population to decrease tremendously, yet few things are being done to stop this. As researchers discovered “The disease, known as white-nose syndrome, recently was found in north-central Illinois, and previously has been detected in Iowa. A Wisconsin natural resources official said it is only a matter of time until it reaches the state (“Deadly Bat Disease…” par.1). Since this has been discovered it has inflicted damage upon the agricultural industry causing loss of income when their crops die. Even with all the devastation to the farms little is being done to find a cure with lack of funding, but some solutions have been found. White nose syndrome
The fungus, later named Pseudogymnoascus destructans, was found to cause the disease white-nose syndrome (WNS). The fungus grows best in the cool conditions of caves and mines, and WNS affects bats as they hibernate. WNS can cause mortality rates of up to 95% in infected sites. Cause of mortality is still unknown, but the disease appears to cause the bats to wake prematurely out of torpor and burn crucial fat reserves. (“White Nose Syndrome” par.1)
Not much is known about how to stop this disease and scientists are having trouble finding ways to prevent it from spreading. While studying the bats the researchers must be careful because White Nose Syndrome is contagious to humans in some cases, but it does not have the same effects as it has on bats. As Craig Willis states: Although the “white nose” around the muzzle gave a name to the condition, the disease actually seems to kill by damaging the wings. Bat wings are unusual; rich in blood vessels and only a few cells thick, they exchange water, oxygen and carbon dioxide with the atmosphere, much like the lungs. “Bats don’t just use their wings to fly around,” says Craig Willis, associate professor of biology at the University of Winnipeg, Canada.The fungus injures wing tissue, and the bats “lose fluid through the lesions, like a victim of severe burns” (Qtd. in White
However there is hope in small cases where few bats were cured and the results look promising, says Sybill Amelon:
The treatment is based on a bacterium that inhibits fungal growth, and was originally studied to see if it could slow the ripening of fruits and vegetables. Researchers are in their second year of trials with little brown bats and Northern long-eared bats....Amelon and her team released about 15 treated bats back into the wild on May 19. The treatment helps all but the most heavily infected bats (Qtd. in Lee par. 2)
This was a rare case in which bats were saved but this treatment is big jump from what they previously knew about the fungus. From this others have made bounds to expand on this new found