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<br><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><b>This release, PHOTOS, A MAP,
and A PODCAST can be found in the USGS Newsroom at: </b></font><a href="http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2058"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><b><u>http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2058</u></b></font></a><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><b>.</b></font>
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<br><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><b>News Release</b></font>
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<td width=25%><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">October 30, 2008 </font>
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<td width=35%><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">David Blehert </font>
<td width=28%><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">608-270-2466 </font>
<td width=36%><a href=mailto:dblehert@usgs.gov><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><u>dblehert@usgs.gov</u></font></a><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">
</font>
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<td><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">Gail Moede Rogall </font>
<td><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">608-270-2438 </font>
<td><a href=mailto:gmrogall@usgs.gov><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><u>gmrogall@usgs.gov</u></font></a><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">
</font>
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<td><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">Catherine Puckett </font>
<td><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">352-275-2639 </font>
<td><a href=mailto:cpuckett@usgs.gov><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><u>cpuckett@usgs.gov</u></font></a><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">
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<br><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><b>Newly Identified Fungus Implicated
in White-Nose Syndrome in Bats: Mysterious Bat Disease Decimates Colonies
in the Northeast</b></font>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">A previously undescribed, cold-loving
fungus has been linked to white-nose syndrome, a condition associated with
the deaths of over 100,000 hibernating bats in the northeastern United
States. The findings are published in this week's issue of Science<i>.</i></font>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">The probable cause of these bat
deaths has puzzled researchers and resource managers urgently trying to
understand why the bats were dying in such unprecedented numbers. Since
the winter of 2006-07, bat declines at many surveyed hibernation caves
exceeded 75 percent.</font>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">The fungus—a white, powdery-looking
organism—is commonly found on the muzzles, ears and wings of afflicted
dead and dying bats, though researchers have not yet determined that it
is the only factor causing bats to die. Most of the bats are also emaciated,
and some of them leave their hibernacula—winter caves where they hibernate—to
seek food that they will not find in winter.</font>
<br>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">USGS microbiologist and lead author
David Blehert isolated the fungus in April 2008, and identified it as a
member of the group <i>Geomyces</i>. The research was conducted by U.S.
Geological Survey scientists in collaboration with the New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Department of Health,
and others.</font>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">Geomyces are a group of<i> </i>fungi
that live in soil, water and air and are capable of growing and reproducing
at refrigerator-level temperatures. Although the new fungus is a close
genetic relative of known Geomyces, it does not look like a typical member
of this group under the microscope. "We found that this fungus had
colonized the skin of 90 percent of the bats we analyzed from all the states
affected by white-nose syndrome," Blehert said.</font>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">Researchers don't know yet if white-nose
syndrome emerged because this newly identified fungus was introduced into
caves or whether the fungus already existed in caves and began infecting
bats after they were already weakened from some other cause. "This
fungus may have been recently introduced to bat hibernation caves and,
if so, human and animal movements among these caves are causes that need
to be considered,"says Blehert. "Data show the occurrence of
white-nose syndrome radiating outward from the site of its first appearance,
and genetic identity among fungal isolates from distant caves argues for
a recent introduction of this microbe. Before the identification of white-nose
syndrome, mass mortality events in bats as a result of disease were very
rare."</font>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">WNS was first seen in New York during
the winter of 2006. Since then, populations of cave-hibernating bats have
been drastically declining in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and
Connecticut. Affected species include little brown bats, northern bats,
tricolored bats, Indiana bats, small-footed myotis and big brown bats.</font>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">Worldwide, bats play critical ecological
roles in insect control, plant pollination and seed dissemination, and
the decline of North American bat populations would likely have far-reaching
ecological consequences, the researchers wrote. They noted that parallels
can be drawn between the threat posed by WNS and chytridiomycosis, a lethal
fungal skin infection that has recently caused precipitous global amphibian
population declines.</font>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">"Right now," said Blehert,
"we are uncertain about the long-term effects of white-nose syndrome
on North American bats, but we are quite concerned about future effects
on bat populations wherever environmental conditions are conducive to growth
of the fungus. To manage and perhaps halt this disease, we have to first
better understand it."</font>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">Websites for additional information:</font>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/white-nose_syndrome/"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><u>USGS
National Wildlife Health Center</u></font></a><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<li><a href=http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html target=_blank><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><u>U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service</u></font></a><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><u>
</u></font>
<li><a href="http://www.batcon.org/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=346" target=_blank><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><u>Bat
Conservation International</u></font></a><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">
</font></ul><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"> USGS provides science
for a changing world. For more information, visit </font><a href=http://www.usgs.gov/><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><u>www.usgs.gov</u></font></a><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">.</font>
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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">Links and contacts within this release
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Catherine Puckett <br>
USGS Office of Communications<br>
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OFFICE PHONE: 352-264-3532<br>
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EMAIL: cpuckett@usgs.gov</font>