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David Grimes wrote:When they first announced that there was a chance humans could spread WNS I was not convinced but I still slowed my caving activity drastically and never even caved outside of my own county. As time has gone by I started to think the risk was not very likely and now I am at a point where I believe the odds of a human spreading g. destructans to another cave on their gear or clothing is so small you have a better chance of winning the lottery when you didn't buy a ticket. I will continue to follow the approved decontamination procedures and not use my caving gear outside of my normal caving area but these closures are really way past the point of being ridiculous.
winmag wrote:Um, isn't it widely believed that since the white nose fungus was noted in photos of bats in Europe from years ago, that likely it WAS brought to this country by people? I don't think any bats migrated to this continent from Europe. If it started in a commercial cave in the northeast, it would seem plausible that someone visiting that area came to the first cave it was found in and brought some spores along in some contaminated article of clothing or mud on a boot. Of course it is likely that bats are spreading it amongst themselves, but to deny the fact that something so easily spread as a fungal spore cannot be transported by humans would seem to be sticking one's head in the sand because it is inconvenient to believe something that might necessitate a change in behavior.
David Grimes wrote:The fact WNS showed up in a commercial cave first is really irrelevant since we cannot positively say it was not already in another area cave. It was likely noticed first in a commercial cave due to the number of visitors. It is still possible that the commercial cave in question was the first site.
BrianC wrote: there is a probability that bats from the USA are responsible for spreading the fungus to Europe in the first place.
(AP article in the Wall Street Journal)http://online.wsj.com/article/AP0c401c80a5d74f749c42d17ee9c43fda.htmlThe fungus that causes white nose, Geomyces destructans, is almost identical to the fungus found on bats in Europe, but it does not appear to have the mortality in Europe that it does in North America, studies have shown.
Willis said there are two basic theories that could explain why white nose is so destructive in North America, but not in Europe.
One is that the North American fungus existed here but went unnoticed until it mutated and became more deadly. The second is that the European fungus was brought to North America where bats are unable to fight off the infection.
If it is proven to be an invasive species — and the study Willis is leading is expected to be published in three to four months — an important next step would be to try to determine why European bats survive exposure to the fungus and most North American bats do not.
winmag wrote:Since there was no known "cure" or solution, the state decided to err on the side of caution and close the caves so that if humans did spread it, we wouldn't open the door wide open to moving it around to uninfected caves. It seems quite plausible that something on the order of a fungus could be spread rather easily as is athletes foot and other such things. Now that it is here, it is basically a moot point.
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