New research sheds information on deadly bat disease

Saturday, January 10, 2015, 11:06 AM - New research is providing valuable information on white-nose syndrome, a disease killing bats in North America.

According to scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Wisconsin, the fungi-originated disease targets the bats and affects the amount of energy they use during hibernation.

By comparing the amount of energy used in healthy bats to infected bats, researchers found that infected bats had less fat and were using twice the amount of energy.

White nose syndrome also causes physiologic imbalance as chemical imbalances affecting potassium and pH levels.

Wings were also severely damaged in sick specimens, assumed to happen in the later stages of the disease.

A bat-epidemic

White-nose syndrome is a disease that has killed upward of 5 million bats in North America. It was first identified in North American bat in New York back in 2006. By 2010, bats in Canada had started showing signs of the disease too. It's spreading quickly and has affected specimens in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. While it still hasn't hit Manitoba, it's spreading farther west every year.

The bats that have been afflicted include the little borwn bat, the northern myotis and the tri-coloured bat.

The disease usually hits the little guys while they are hibernating. The fungus responsible for White-Nose syndrome is capable of growing in cold weather and was potentially brought from the U.K. where bats often have the disease—but also have developed resistance.

Still a chance of fight back?

Promising research from the UNited States shows that a certain bacteria is capable of slowing the growth of the fungus.

However experts warn that even if the disease is under control, the recovery period could take a long, long time since most bats only produce one offspring every year.

While the bats are still around, their numbers have dwindled so much that at this point they are not really aprt of the ecosystem—a condition biologists call "functionally extirpated."

MUST-SEE: Hibernating bats are not the only animals struggling this winter