Michigan DNR WNS page

[John Lovaas]

I was looking for Midwest natural resource agency web pages on WNS, and found this Michigan DNR page that appears to have been posted in late March:

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-15 ... --,00.html

and this sentence caught my eye-

"...Evidence of WNS has been documented in caves absent of bats..."

Is this statement true? I'm not aware of a study that has found Gd where bats were not currently present, or present pre-WNS. Is this a deceptive way of saying "spores persist for some period of time after all the bats have died or abandoned the roost"?

[self-deleted_user]

Erm...I have no clue...and it's not like we have a ton of caves here in MI...and the cave up north, which on October's count has 74 bats, is to our knowledge wns free (although the MKC decided to close the cave until next month and didn't even do their normal Feb/March trip up there as to "not disturb the bats" so I'm not sure anyone actually checked them, which confused me...shouldn't we check? I dunno, heh, all I know is Tim told me there wasn't going to be a winter trip this year *shrugs*)

[John Lovaas]

Erm...I have no clue...and it's not like we have a ton of caves here in MI...

but lots of mines(and bats) in the U.P.... ;-)

[self-deleted_user]

Oh yeah, keep forgetting mines exist (so I'm told, not like i've ever seen them!). My bad!

[wyandottecaver]

"...There is also evidence that the fungus is inadvertently spread by humans. Cavers (spelunkers) may transfer the causative agent on their clothing, shoes and gear between caves. Evidence of WNS has been documented in caves absent of bats, and many states have restricted access to caves to prevent further spread by humans...."

Lies, lies and more lies. I'm hoping this was just a DNR Public Relations staffer too uninterested to do their homework. To my knowledge, there exists no case anywhere where GD or WNS has been demonstrated to occur without connection to bats. They *might* be creatively referring to the botched mine experiment where GD (probably) persisted after killing the original colony.

The disturbing thing is that reading the whole paragraph, this statement seems purposefully constructed to support their "caver vector" statement preceeding it. Maybe some of the MI folks used to work in WI.

[BrianC]

"...There is also evidence that the fungus is inadvertently spread by humans. Cavers (spelunkers) may transfer the causative agent on their clothing, shoes and gear between caves. Evidence of WNS has been documented in caves absent of bats, and many states have restricted access to caves to prevent further spread by humans...."

Lies, lies and more lies. I'm hoping this was just a DNR Public Relations staffer too uninterested to do their homework. To my knowledge, there exists no case anywhere where GD or WNS has been demonstrated to occur without connection to bats. They *might* be creatively referring to the botched mine experiment where GD (probably) persisted after killing the original colony.

The disturbing thing is that reading the whole paragraph, this statement seems purposefully constructed to support their "caver vector" statement preceeding it. Maybe some of the MI folks used to work in WI.

Hey, We did try to correct this type of statement, but many cavers seem uninterested in doing so.

[cavergirl]

The Statement "Evidence of WNS has been documented in caves absent of bats" is absolutely ludicrous. WNS is by definition a disease on bats. While G.d. may or may not exist in cave environments, WNS itself has to exist only on bats. And so far all the science I have seen suggests that G.d has only been found (1)on bats, (2) in bat guano and (3)in sediments in WNS affected caves.
Peter, can you set these people straight?

[BrianC]

Peter, can you set these people straight?

I'll second that consideration Chrys. He will again confirm that we are beating a "dead horse"