About White Nose Syndrome
Published: Summer, 2008

WCC would like to alert you to a serious problem affecting bats and caves in the northeastern U.S. It is possible that this threat to hibernating bats could spread to other parts of North America, including the West.

What is White Nose Syndrome?
White Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a name given to an as yet unidentified agent or agents causing mass mortalities at a growing number of bat hibernacula in and around New York State. First documented near Albany, New York in the winter of 2006-07, White Nose Syndrome refers to a white fungus on the noses of many affected bats. The fungus may be a symptom and not the cause of the mortality observed. It is unclear at this point if or how WNS is transmitted. Biologists and/or cavers have since documented WNS in an increasing number of bat hibernacula (caves and mines where bats overwinter) in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, where it continues to kill bats at an alarming rate, with more than 90% of the historic populations gone in some cave and mine sites.

What are the Symptoms?

• Bats are found in roosts in colder regions of caves or mines or in areas not normally identified as winter roost sites, and/or may be concentrated in unusually high numbers near entrances, often within the zone of light penetration.
• Bats near affected sites are observed flying during daylight hours and dying on the landscape under a range of temperature conditions.
• Dead or dying bats may be found on the ground or on buildings, trees, or other structures.
• Some, but clearly not all affected bats have a white fungus around the nose. The fungus can also be present on the wings, ears, and/or tail.

It seems that bats are losing their fat reserves (needed to survive hibernation) long before the winter is over, and they are dying.

*WNS is not the only cause of white fungus on hibernating bats. If you see a bat with a white fungus, but you are not in a known affected area and none of the other signs of WNS are observed, then it may not be WNS.

How Might White Nose be Spread?

• Direct cave-to-cave transmission by bats during fall swarm or pre-hibernation movements.
• Transfer between bats while at summer colonies, then moved to clean hibernacula. For instance, bats banded at a summer colony in Vermont have been found hibernating in three different mines.
• Cavers and bat researchers could be moving the problem between sites on their gear. Most affected sites first documented in 2008 had clearly been visited by people who had been at the original four sites in 2007.
• Indiana bats, and to a lesser extent little brown bats typically hibernate in dense clusters. It is hard to imagine a condition more conducive to the spread of disease, if white nose is a disease.

What species of bats are affected?
Vulnerability seems to vary between species and between sites. Eastern pipistrelle, little brown, northern long-eared, state-listed small-footed, and federally endangered Indiana bats have been found with WNS. Big brown bats are typically found in lower numbers at the affected sites, and have not been seen with symptoms to date. WNS has had a significant impact on the endangered Indiana bat population in the region, and has the potential to be catastrophic to the common Little Brown Bat, which has suffered the highest numbers of mortalities.

What is being done?
To identify the cause of mortality, lab analysis, supported by field work, has been conducted to study the pathology and identify potential causes viruses, contaminants, bacteria, immune response or depression, fungus, environmental factors such as humidity and temperature.

To keep people informed, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service (USFWS) has provided a website (www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html). Researchers have established media contacts and are coordinating with stakeholders (caver groups, conservation organizations, state and federal agencies)

Caves in the affected area have been closed during hibernation season. The National Speleological Society (NSS) closed their nature preserves in New York and Pennsylvania, reopening them in May. The preserves will now operate as usual pending new developments. The New York caves may all close again with the beginning of hibernation in mid-October. A preserve in West Virginia was also closed, then reopened, in collaboration with state and federal natural resources officials.

In Albany, New York, on June 9 - 11th, some 75 scientists, field researchers, state and federal agency personnel, and cavers met for a three-day Science Strategy Conference on White Nose Syndrome

Despite working together on WNS as a group for less than six months, a lot has been accomplished. They have: mapped the progression of WNS, documented its symptoms, analyzed bats from several states, identified the fungi on the bats, planned for summer, fall, and winter surveys, and developed public communications.

The final day of the WNS Conference was devoted to synthesizing the work of the participants, setting up several task forces to deal with things like coordinating media outreach, funding, revising protocols on decontamination, developing a field diagnostic for WNS, developing protocols on sample collection and sharing, finalizing a scoring system for grading wing degradation in bats found in summer maternity and roosting colonies

Peter Youngbaer, the NSS Liaison on WNS, wnsliaison@caves.org was included in the task forces on communications, funding, and decontamination especially for cavers. This latter point has been a hot topic of discussion, as many in the caving community have raised questions about the efficacy of some of the protocols. Certainly, the possible spread of WNS by humans, both cavers and researchers, cannot be ruled out yet, especially because of the manners in which fungi may be spread. There remains a high level of concern that WNS not be allowed to take hold in other parts of the country, potentially affecting other species or continuing to damage other colonies of the endangered Indiana bat.

A lot of time was spent discussing potential funding sources such as federal grants. Unfortunately, most of these funds have priorities set by Congress over a year ago, so there is a time lag in getting WNS elevated in the national funding streams. Private fundraising was discussed and will be pursued, as these funds have the potential to be more quickly available, and with less restrictions. Bat Conservation International and the North American Center for Bat Research at Indiana University already have established funds, and a WNS-specific fund may be established within the NSS or National Speleological Foundation.

What should cavers know and do? The US Fish and Wildlife Service and the states request that cavers observe all cave closures and advisories and avoid caves or passages of caves containing hibernating bats. Please do not systematically search for bats with WNS. The USFWS-recommended precautions can be found at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/whitenosemessage.html. These decontamination procedures may prove to be important for prevention of the spread of WNS.

White Nose has persisted for at least two seasons. In two years, it has killed more than 90% of bats in affected sites. It is spreading rapidly, and we still do not know what it is, or how it is spread.

This article was compiled using information from the following websites: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/pdf/white-nosefaqs.pdf
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/whitenosemessage.html
http://www.caves.org/committee/conservation/WNS/wns3-30-08.pdf
http://www.caves.org/committee/conservation/WNS/donations.htm#Open
http://www.caves.org/committee/conservation/WNS/WNS%20Info.htm
http://www.speleobooks.com/WNS/agenda3.html
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