"UK bats may be immune to killer fungus" article on BBC Website.
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23599983.
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Abstract
White-nose syndrome is an emerging disease in North America that has caused substantial declines in hibernating bats. A recently identified fungus (Geomyces destructans) causes skin lesions that are characteristic of this disease. Typical signs of this infection were not observed in bats in North America before white-nose syndrome was detected. However, unconfirmed reports from Europe indicated white fungal growth on hibernating bats without associated deaths. To investigate these differences, hibernating bats were sampled in Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary to determine whether G. destructans is present in Europe. Microscopic observations, fungal culture, and genetic analyses of 43 samples from 23 bats indicated that 21 bats of 5 species in 3 countries were colonized by G. destructans. We hypothesize that G. destructans is present throughout Europe and that bats in Europe may be more immunologically or behaviorally resistant to G. destructans than their congeners in North America because they potentially coevolved with the fungus.
Dear colleagues,
I am Dr Matti Masing from Estonia. In the late 1970s
I discovered a similar disease in bats hibernating
in limestone tunnels near Tallinn, NW Estonia, NE Europe.
This observation is published in my book Lendlased 1984,
p 81 (in Estonian). In our case the disease (probable fungus),
which I called ?notch disease?, attacked the ears of bats.
It was mostly found in Daubenton's Bats (DB) who spend lot of time
in very humid environment. Much less was it observed in other
Myotis species. It was never found in young bats, but up to 27%
of adult Daubenton's Bats hibernating in some tunnels were affected
by the disease. First the tops of ears became whitish and soft,
later the white tissue disappeared but ?eaten? parts of ears were
visible as deep notches, sometimes half of the ear of even more
was missing. I have a photo of one bat who had deep notches in
both ears. Probably this disease did not kill bats, as there was
no population decline. Bats with notched ears were frequent and
they seemed to live long. But this disease mainly occurred in the
tunnels near Tallinn where up to 27% of adult DB were affected.
Only 3.8% were affected in western Estonia and 0.4% in southeastern
Estonia (Masing 1984).
Matti Masing
Posted by: Matti Masing | February 1, 2008 03:54 PM
Sicista Development Centre, Box 111, Tartu 50002, Estonia. E-mail: sicista@hot.ee
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