Science 329, 679–682 (2010) ; Emerging Infect. Dis. 16, 1237–1242 (2010)

Bad news from the bat cave: white-nose syndrome, a fungus that has been killing hibernating bats in eastern North America, could soon lead to regional extinctions. A team led by Winifred Frick at the University of Santa Cruz in California modelled the effect of the disease in the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) over the next 100 years, using data from 22 bat populations in 5 US states. The researchers found a 99% chance of regional extinction for this species in the next 16 years if infection and death rates stay as they are now.

Meanwhile, Gudrun Wibbelt at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, Germany, and her colleagues discovered the fungus, Geomyces destructans (pictured colonizing bat hair, right panel), in five bat species sampled in Germany, Switzerland and Hungary (mouse-eared bat with white-nose syndrome, left panel). Their survey suggests that white-nose syndrome is widespread in Europe — but bats do not die of the disease. This could be because their colonies tend to be smaller, or because they co-evolved with the fungus. Learning how they live with the fungus could help ecologists to manage the outbreak across the pond.

Credit: EMERGING INFECT. DIS.