Researchers visit caves to defeat bat epidemic

[psteward]

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16422675/re ... t-epidemic

Researchers visit caves to defeat bat epidemic

JELLICO, Tenn. (AP) - Researchers with the University of Tennessee and Pennsylvania's Bucknell University recently visited Tennessee caves to collect 100 little brown bats for research aimed at combating white nose syndrome.

The fast-spreading fungal disease infects bats while they hibernate and has killed more than one million bats across the northeastern U.S.

Cory Holliday, a cave specialist for The Nature Conservancy, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that a lot of the research has to be done in labs where researchers can control the variables (http://bit.ly/rHaPiG ).

Researchers came to Tennessee for bats because the epidemic has killed so many in the Northeast.

Scientists say the disease so far has not spread across Tennessee as rapidly as was feared.

[PYoungbaer]

Yes. This is the same project covered in another post:

viewtopic.php?f=58&t=13291

A few more details here than in the other media story. This is a project funded by your NSS Rapid Response Fund. Your donations have permitted 16 projects to date.