Bat harvesting in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri

[Billy]

Harvesting of healthy bats in Midwest for WNS infection research in Penn.

http://newstrib.com/articles/news/local/default.asp?article=30829&aname=Scientists+snare+local+bats+for+nationwide+study

[Cheryl Jones]

Once at the university, the healthy bats will be infected with white-nose syndrome and later euthanized after a series of studies.
The scientists hope their study reveals how to ward off the disease or provides clues as to how to treat it. One fact that gives them hope is that the fungus prospers in cold weather, leading researchers to believe it’s less likely to spread to southern climates.

I wonder what the specific project is, what they have in mind, and how it will differ from research already done. Hazel B. or Peter Y., do you know?

Cheryl

[MoleManCOCrawlAholic]

is there really an euthinization cure or are they just pumping bats full of drugs.....if there is a cure so to say.......are there any ideal plans to implement it??

[PYoungbaer]

I believe this is part of the following USFWS-funded project, awarded in 2010:

Who will survive? Exploring individual, sex, and species differences in susceptibility and resistance to WNS. Reeder/Willis/Franck, 2010
Describe between-species and within-species variation in response to infection with Gd (including the potential lack of infection in some species/individuals, who may be exposed to the fungus [PCR+], but not develop WNS). Determine whether natural selection for traits leading to resistance against Gd/WNS is plausible

One of the reasons for going to a place like Illinois for bats is that the availability of WNS-free bats in the Northeast is virtually nill. Bluntly, researchers are having a hard time finding bats to use for the research.

These bats may also be part of the most recent NSS-funded project awarded to Dr. Marcy Jan Sousa, University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine:

"Evaluation of a terbinafine impregnated subcutaneous implant for the treatment of Geomyces destructans infected bats."

To my knowledge, this is the only active treatment experiment currently underway. Using an implant for time release of the fungicide avoids the necessity to repeatedly handle bats, a problem with earlier efforts. These bats will be kept and analyzed at Dr. DeeAnn Reeder's lab at Bucknell University, one of the few places that can keep bats for study, and contain the Geomyces destructans fungus. Sarah Brownlee, mentioned in the story, is a former NSS-funded grantee.

To answer MoleMan's question, euthanization is not a cure, but rather a necessary part of the experiment to analyze the bats for the effects of the terbinafine, but also the genetic traits that may inform us about why some bats are resistant. Both of these studies are designed to inform whether or how in situ treatments would be possible, and to target scarce resources for conservation and recovery of species.

I'm a little bit behind in posting the two most recent NSS-funded projects, but hope to have them up on the NSS WNS web page by the end of the weekend.