Syndrome du museau blanc

Comme si elles avaient besoin de ça en plus...

Citation :

MONTREAL — Des scientifiques parcourent les mines désaffectées du sud du Québec afin de vérifier si les chauves-souris québécoises sont aussi touchées par une maladie mortelle qui décime les populations du nord-est américain.

Des milliers de cas de ce que les autorités américaines ont nommé le "syndrome du museau blanc" ont surgi dans plusieurs grottes et mines désaffectées de nombreux Etats américains. Alors que les spécialistes américains de la faune sont à déterminer combien de spécimens sont touchés, les biologistes québécois craignent que cette maladie n'ait franchi les frontières de la province.

"On voulait aller voir dans nos mines, car si on a ça ici, ça pourrait menacer grandement nos populations de chauves-souris", a déclaré Jacques Jutras, biologiste au ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune. "Aux Etats-Unis, elles meurent par dizaines de milliers."

Les chauves-souris qui meurent de cette maladie perdent beaucoup de poids, sont déshydratées et leur museau est aussi blanc que si on l'avait plongé dans un sac de farine, d'où le nom donné à ce syndrome. Les autorités américaines estiment que le taux de mortalité parmi les chauves-souris porteuses de la maladie se situe entre 50 et 90 pour cent, et ils ignorent si la maladie est transmissible aux humains.

"J'espère qu'il s'agit d'un événement que l'on ne vit qu'une fois dans sa vie, a dit Susi von Oettingen, une spécialiste des espèces menacées au département américain de la Faune. Nous n'avons jamais vu un tel phénomène chez nos chauves-souris, pas plus que tout autre mammifère, avec un taux de mortalité régionale aussi élevé."

Les scientifiques québécois ont effectué des tests sur des chauves-souris hibernant dans deux mines désaffectées de Bolton, dans les Cantons-de-l'Est, près de la frontière avec le Vermont. Les résultats préliminaires ne permettent pas de conclure que la maladie a franchi la frontière, mais des tests supplémentaires seront effectués sur des spécimens morts récupérés par les biologistes.

Deux autres mines seront inspectées la semaine prochaine, mais les biologistes devront d'abord franchir près de sept kilomètres en raquettes avant de pouvoir en atteindre l'entrée.

La maladie a été documentée pour la première fois au cours de l'hiver 2006-07, dans l'Etat de New York, mais les autorités américaines n'ont réalisé toute l'ampleur du problème qu'une fois avoir visité des cavernes, au début du présent hiver. Depuis, les scientifiques ont découvert des traces de la maladie au Vermont, dans le New Hampshire, au Massachusetts, dans le Rhode Island et au Connecticut.

L'année dernière, entre 8000 et 11 000 spécimens - plus de la moitié de la population en hibernation - est morte des suites de la maladie seulement dans la région d'Albany, dans l'Etat de New York.

"La plupart de ces chauves-souris, qui sont insectivores au Québec et dans le nord-est américain, ont de très faibles réserves de gras, a ajouté Mme von Oettingen. Ce qui veut dire qu'elles ont utilisé leurs réserves et qu'elles meurent de faim. Elles cherchent alors des sources de nourriture et de quoi s'abreuver, mais elles le font à la mauvaise période de l'année."

On est mal barré... Et si en plus cette maladie se répend sur les continents ça va faire mal...

L'on suspecte maintenant fortement un champignon d'être à l'origine de cette hécatombe...

Espérons qu'à terme cela aidera à préserver les populations...

http://www.techno-science.net/?onglet=news&news=5958

Citation :

Un champignon venu du froid cause du déclin des chauves-souris ?

Des chercheurs ont réussi à identifier le champignon blanc trouvé sur les chauves-souris ayant succombé au "syndrome du nez blanc" parmi les populations du nord-est des États-Unis. La véritable origine de cette hécatombe est encore inconnue mais le champignon est retrouvé sur le museau, les oreilles et les ailes des animaux qui décèdent.

Depuis l'hiver (L'hiver est une des quatre saisons des zones tempérées.) 2006-07, les populations de chauves-souris dans certains sites d'hibernation ont chuté de 80 à 97 pour cent. Ces morts sont curieuses car les chauves-souris sont des animaux bien résistants du point (Graphie) de vue immunologique, porteuses de maladies comme la rage. La conséquence de ces décès est particulièrement gênante car ces animaux jouent un rôle important dans la régulation (« Régulation » redirige ici. Pour les autres significations, voir Régulation (homonymie)) des populations d'insectes, ainsi que dans la pollinisation et la dispersion des graines.

Dans un article de la revue Science (La science (du latin scientia, connaissance) relève Historiquement de l'activité philosophique, et fut pendant...), David Blehert, de l'USGS - National Wildlife Health Center à Madison, et ses collègues ont prélevé des échantillons du champignon sur plus de 100 chauves-souris de différentes espèces affligées du syndrome du nez blanc. En le cultivant en laboratoire, ils se sont aperçus qu'il préférait pousser à basse température (La température d'un système est une fonction croissante du degré d'agitation thermique des particules, c'est-à-dire de...) alors que des températures plus chaudes inhibent son infection. Une analyse génétique a révélé que le champignon appartient au genre Geomyces inclut d'autres espèces colonisant la peau d'animaux sous des climats froids, bien que son apparence diffère des autres Geomyces.


Source: Science, AAAS & EurekAlert

Merci pour ces infos supplémentaires Skipp !

Geoffrey a écrit:

Merci pour ces infos supplémentaires Skipp !

De rien

Des nouvelles.....

Citation :

The cave near the western shore of Lake George in the town of Hague has
long been one of the biggest winter homes to little brown bats in North
America. A count of bats in the mid-1990s led to the conclusion that 185
000 of the tiny mammals hibernated there, and state wildlife officials
believe that number likely topped 200 000 a few years later. Last winter
[2008-09], when biologists from the state Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) visited the cave, they concluded there were somewhere
between 2000 and 3000 left, said Alan Hicks, a DEC wildlife biologist.

Another cave near Paradox Lake in Essex County has been similarly
devastated by a mysterious disease that kills the bats as they hibernate
during the winter.

"There's not a (bat) population in the Adirondacks that hasn't been
affected," said Hicks, who is heading the state's efforts to investigate.
"I'm not looking forward to this winter." The culprit is a mysterious
malady dubbed "white nose syndrome", which has devastated bat populations
across the north east the past 2 winters, to the point where some
hibernacula have lost 95 per cent of their bats.

Bats that become infected awaken during their hibernation, apparently
because of the discomfort caused by a non-native fungal infection that
leaves a white coating on their faces. They seem to die of starvation after
they burn through body weight and can't find food to replenish. "They seem
to exhaust their energy reserves prematurely," said Joseph Okoniewski, a
DEC biologist with the agency's pathology unit.

The caves of the south eastern Adirondacks and Capital District are at the
epicenter of the outbreak, a catastrophe that has spread as far south and
west as West Virginia over the past 18 months. It's been called the most
precipitous decline of a species on record, and answers about how to stop
it are few and far between.

"It's heartbreaking," said Mylea Bayless, a conservation biologist with Bat
Conservation International, a nonprofit advocacy group. "I don't think
people truly understand the impact this is going to have on our communities
and our environment." Bats do more than hang in our home attics and flit
above our heads at night. They are a crucial part of the food chain, eating
up to half their weight in bugs a night. One of their main foods in the
north east is mosquitoes, a pest that spreads numerous diseases to mammals.
"They eat a lot of bugs, and some of these bugs are a problem for us,"
Hicks said.

It was the winter of 2006 when cave explorers working their way through
Howe's Caverns, south west of Albany, noticed irregular activity among bats
there. The winged creatures should hibernate in the winter, but some were
found to be awake and covered with a white fuzz. The issue seemed isolated,
so scientists initially thought little of it. During the winter of 2007,
though, the problem returned, and more bats were found dead there. By the
winter of 2008, tens of thousands of bats in caves and mines around upstate
New York were dying when they should have been safely in hibernation, and
the malady had spread to Vermont. Last winter, the problem worsened.

Wildlife biologists from New York and Vermont spent countless hours this
summer [2009] surveying caves and mines where bats spend their summers, and
the drop in bat numbers has been sobering. Populations of little brown bats
around the Adirondacks are off by 95 per cent in some caves and mines,
Hicks said. Little browns are the small bats most people see at night,
skimming the surface of ponds and lakes eating bugs. One cave in Hague has
long been the largest wintering site on the continent for little browns,
and as of last winter [2008-09], just a couple of thousand were left.

During a survey last month [September 2009] at a cave in Dorset, Vermont,
just minutes from the New York border, one bat was caught in 3 hours.
During the same survey 2 years earlier at the same cave, 900 were caught in
3 hours, said Scott Darling, a Vermont wildlife biologist. "That cave was
kind of the poster child for us," Darling said. "The news we continue to
get is not promising."

In addition to little brown bats, endangered Indiana bats seem most
susceptible to white nose syndrome. For some reason, though, big brown bats
have not been affected at rates the others have, Hicks said. Their numbers
have dropped about 50 per cent or so from it.

Little is known about how the fungus, dubbed _Geomyces destructans_, made
its way to the US. It thrives in cold and damp caves and former mineral
mines in the Northeast have proved to be prime territory for it.

It has long been present in Europe and Asia, and one of the leading
theories is that a spelunker [one who makes a hobby of exploring and
studying caves. - Mod.SH] who explored caves abroad brought it to North
America. Howe Caverns is world-renowned, and sees 200 000 visitors a year,
Hicks said.

The fungus does not seem to kill bats in Europe, but Europe has far fewer
bats than North America. Some theorize that it caused similar havoc there
years ago without anyone noticing, and the bat population dwindled because
of it. Why the fungus has proved so problematic to only bats, and some
species of bats have been hit harder than others, are additional unanswered
questions. Okoniewski said fungal infections are typically "secondary"
pathogens, opportunistic invaders that cause problems to animals that are
battling a virus or whose immune system is otherwise compromised.

So many biologists initially theorized that something else was afflicting
the bats, such as a virus, and making them susceptible to the fungus. But
Okoniewski said research seems to show that the fungus has "a unique
ability to penetrate the tissues" of bats on its own. The fact the fungus
appears to be the cause of the devastation is a major issue for those
trying to figure out how to reverse the trend. Many mammals don't have much
immune resistance to them. "One of the biggest problems is resistance to
fungal infections is not a common thing," Hicks said.

Fungal infections are also difficult to treat and stop from spreading,
particularly among mammals like bats that huddle together to hibernate. And
while some theorized that the malady would only affect bats in cold-weather
climates, Hicks said it appears caves as far south as Mexico get cold
enough to allow the fungus to grow.

Bayless, from Bat Conservation International, said scientists are bracing
for its southern spread. "We don't know what's going to happen," Hicks
said. "But I think this winter [2009-10] we'll know whether this is going
to drive them all to zero." The hope is that the fungus will not have as
much impact on the remaining bats in the north east, since their density in
caves will be far lower than usual.

More than 70 researchers and scientists working to solve the mystery met in
western Pennsylvania in August [2009], and weeks later the US Fish and
Wildlife Service unveiled an 8-page plan to attack the disease. The plan
spells out testing, sampling and control efforts as well as ways to raise
awareness to the issue. Research is going on continually: Vermont and New
York researchers plan to work together this winter to try to repopulate a
cave in central Vermont whose bat population was wiped out. But researchers
know that, based on frequency of deaths, time is of the essence.

Geomyces destructans, le nom de la bête....

Merci pour les news !

Arrivée en France, près de Bordeaux...

Citation :

Europe's Bats Resist Fungal Scourge of North America
----------------------------------------------------
The same fungus that has devastated bat colonies in the northeastern
United States has been identified for the 1st time in Europe -- in a
healthy bat. "The astonishing thing is that [the fungus] affects
North American bats so devastatingly, but that European bats can get
along with it," says Christian Voigt, a bat physiologist at the
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin.

White-nose syndrome was 1st identified in a cave in upstate New York
in 2006. Since then, it has spread across 9 states and caused
unprecedented mortalities. Affected bats emerge from hibernation too
frequently and lose body fat, and many starve to death. Last year, a
group led by microbiologist David Blehert of the U.S. Geological
Survey in Madison, Wisconsin, identified the fungus associated with
the syndrome as _Geomyces destructans_, but many puzzles remain about
the nature of the disease, such as whether the bats' immune systems
were compromised (Science, 29 May 2009, p. 1134).

European researchers watched the U.S. outbreak with alarm. "I
thought, 'Oh my God, we've got a huge nightmare on our hands,'"
recalls Kate Jones of the Zoological Society of London. So far, no
mass casualties have been detected among Europe's species, but
researchers did find anecdotal reports of bats with white fungus that
no one had paid attention to previously.

On 12 Mar [2009], Sebastien Puechmaille of University College Dublin
(UCD) spotted a mouse-eared bat (_Myotis myotis_) covered with fungus
in a cave 130 km [80 miles] northeast of Bordeaux, France.
Microscopic examination of the spores and 2 molecular markers showed
that it was _G. destructans_, the team reported online 29 Dec 2009 in
Emerging Infectious Diseases [see commentary]. Another group, led by
Gudrun Wibbelt of IZW, has also identified the fungus in bats from 3
other European countries, none reporting bat deaths. Their results
have been submitted to the same journal.

Now the challenge is to figure out why most European bats are not
infected and why those that are remain healthy -- and whether that
knowledge can be used to help ailing bat populations in the United
States. One scenario is that _G. destructans_ has been present in
Europe for a long time, and European bat species have evolved
immunity, says Emma Teeling of UCD, the senior author of the December
paper. Or perhaps the fungus evolved greater virulence after arriving
in North America, a possibility that could be investigated with
further sequencing.

Whatever the explanation, the European reports are "great news," says
Alan Hicks, a mammal specialist with New York's Department of
Environmental Conservation in Albany, [New York], who has charted the
decline of the state's once-massive bat colonies. Eventually, an
understanding of these differences could help lead to the development
of a vaccine or treatments for endangered bats, Blehert says.
Meanwhile, researchers are beginning once again to survey hibernating
bats in the Northeast United States. Hicks says the signs so far are
that deaths are continuing.

La publication se trouve là :http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/16/2/pdfs/09-1391.pdf en anglais

Gwalchafed a écrit:

Arrivée en France, près de Bordeaux...

On 12 Mar [2009], Sebastien Puechmaille of University College Dublin
(UCD) spotted a mouse-eared bat (_Myotis myotis_) covered with fungus
in a cave 130 km [80 miles] northeast of Bordeaux, France.

Aïe... il ne manquait plus que celà...

Seul le champignon est arrivé, apparemment il ne provoque pas de syndrome chez les chiroptères européens...

yoda a écrit:

Seul le champignon est arrivé, apparemment il ne provoque pas de syndrome chez les chiroptères européens...

Ouf... Les chiroptères européens sont ils préservés dû fait que l'Ancien monde a toujours été anciennement plus sujet aux épidémies ? Ce que l'on retrouve par exemple aussi chez l'Homme...

Même pour le champignon, pour une même espèce, il peut y avoir plusieurs souches différentes, qui n'ont pas forcément la même virulence, la variété peut être très forte au niveau des champignons.
Ou effectivement une meilleure immunité de nos chiroptères.

C'est ce qui est dit là :

Citation :

Now the challenge is to figure out why most European bats are not
infected and why those that are remain healthy -- and whether that
knowledge can be used to help ailing bat populations in the United
States. One scenario is that _G. destructans_ has been present in
Europe for a long time, and European bat species have evolved
immunity, says Emma Teeling of UCD, the senior author of the December
paper. Or perhaps the fungus evolved greater virulence after arriving
in North America, a possibility that could be investigated with
further sequencing.

Citation :

Fatal bat syndrome spreads in Vermont
-------------------------------------
An illness that state biologists believe is killing off the bat
population is spreading north.

Ryan Smith, a biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish and
Wildlife, said Wednesday [3 Feb 2010] that white nose syndrome (WNS)
was first discovered in Vermont 2 years ago, in Dorset. "Although
reports are concentrated around Johnson at this time, we are also
receiving scattered reports from other sections of the state," he
said. "Unfortunately, WNS has continued to spread north, and we
expect to receive more reports of abnormal bat activity from the
northern half of the state. Last winter [2008-09] reports were
concentrated in southern Vermont, but bat populations there have been
devastated over the past 2 winters."

Smith said that the current theory is that the bats are being
infected with a fungus that irritates them into waking up more often
while they are hibernating. He said the bats then burn through their
winter fat reserves faster than they should, and die. He said that a
bat normally wakes up every 2 weeks during the winter, but with WNS,
it's closer to every 4 or 5 days.

The public is still being asked to report sightings of dead bats or
unusual bat behavior, such as flying in the daytime or on warm,
winter days. Such behavior is often a symptom of WNS. "As a result,
people living near some caves or mines are seeing increasing activity
and mortality in these animals. Some are finding dead bats on their
porches or window screens, observing bats flying in the day, or
having bats enter their houses," said Scott Darling, the state
biologist at the head of the WNS study.

Smith said that he spoke with homeowners Wednesday [3 Feb 2010] who
reside in Johnson, who reported roughly 2-dozen dead bats on their
porch over the last week.

He said that while the state continues to monitor the problem,
serious studies have been hampered by a lack of funding. "Funding is
still the major issue with it," he said, adding that biologists still
aren't sure how the fungus relates to bat mortality or if the fungus
is spread from bat to bat or is part of the cave environment. Smith
said that bats from Wisconsin have been imported to a cave where the
bat population was wiped out to see if the bats will contract WNS. He
said that the study is still ongoing and the idea is to see if the
problem comes from the cave or other bats. Smith said that biologists
hope that the fungus is spread from bat to bat, otherwise some method
of cleaning the caves will have to be devised. He said that New York
is currently experimenting with spraying caves with a fungicide in
order to halt the progress of the syndrome. Should that method prove
to work, Vermont may consider it.

The disease was first documented at the Howe Caverns, in central New
York, Smith said. Because the caverns are open to the public, one
theory is that the fungus was brought in from Europe by human foot
traffic. Smith said that European bats infected with the fungus have
not suffered like the ones in the United States, although no one
knows why [see ProMED-mail archive no. 20100108.0091]. "If this goes
unchecked we could very well see bat extinction in the Northeast,"
Smith said, adding that dead bats have not been reported in areas
that were hit hard. "We aren't seeing the mortality this year [2010],
which isn't really a good sign. It indicates that they were wiped out
over the 2 years."

The department is asking people to not attempt to rehabilitate sick
bats. Darling said that bats leaving caves are too emaciated to be
helped by anything short of intensive care by trained professionals
and there is a danger of spreading the illness by moving the bats. He
said that people should continue to report sick or dead bats to the department.

Merci de nous tenir au courant.

Au tenessee maintenant...

Citation :

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) has received
confirmation that 2 bats have tested positive for white nose syndrome
(WNS), a white fungus that is responsible for the deaths of thousands
of bats in the Eastern United States.

This is the 1st record of white nose syndrome in Tennessee. The bats
were hibernating in Worley's cave in Sullivan County. 3 tri-colored
bats were collected by the TWRA and submitted to the National Wildlife
Health Center (NWHC) in Madison, Wisconsin for testing last week [week
of 8 Feb 2010].

Last spring [2009] the state of Tennessee, National Park Service, and
USDA Forest Service and Tennessee Valley Authority closed caves on
public lands in Tennessee in an attempt to slow the spread of the
fungus. The Nature Conservancy also closed caves located on their
lands in Tennessee.

Scientists are trying to determine the cause of WNS and its effects.
Once a colony is affected, the fungus spreads rapidly and has killed
at least 95 percent of bats at one New York hibernation site in 2
years. Other northeastern US monitored bat colonies affected by WNS
are experiencing similar large fatalities. There have been no reported
human illnesses attributed to WNS and there is currently no evidence
to suggest that WNS is harmful to humans or other organisms.

Preliminary research results recently released by the United States
Geological Survey (USGS) indicates that the potential exists for WNS
to be transmitted between bat hibernation caves as an unwanted
hitch-hiker upon humans, their clothing, or other caving gear.

"Temporarily staying out of caves and mines is the one thing we can do
right now to slow the transmission of white nose syndrome," said Cory
Holliday, Cave and Karst Manager for The Nature Conservancy in
Tennessee. "We knew the bat deaths in the Eastern United States were
large. Here in Tennessee we stand to lose the last stronghold of bats
like the endangered Indiana and grays. We have hundreds of thousands
of bats hibernating in our caves each winter. With a 95 percent
mortality rate the loss is catastrophic."

Biologists are concerned that WNS could devastate populations of
endangered Indiana and gray bats. Bats play a key role in keeping
insects such as agricultural pests, mosquitoes and forest pests under
control.

"Bats provide a tremendous public service in terms of pest control,
said Richard Kirk, Nongame and Endangered Species Coordinator for the
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. If we lose 500 000 bats, we'll
lose the benefits from that service and millions of pounds of insects
will still be flying around our neighborhoods, agricultural fields,
and forests."

The disease causes bats to use up their fat reserves rapidly during
hibernation. This causes the bats to fly out of caves during the
winter in a desperate attempt to find food, but since the insects they
eat are also seasonally dormant, the bats soon die of starvation.

State and federal agency biologists and non-governmental organizations
are currently surveying caves in east Tennessee and other portions of
the state. These surveys are being conducted as annual bat population
surveys and to monitor for WNS.

MUSEAU BLANC AU MARYLAND

Citation :

Test confirms bat disease in west Maryland cave
-----------------------------------------------
State wildlife managers say they are restricting access to known bat
locations in western Maryland after a test confirmed the presence of a
disease fatal to the winged mammals in a cave near Cumberland.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said Thursday [18 Mar 2010]
that 4 bats were infected with the fungus linked to White-Nose
Syndrome. The fungus causes lesions on the muzzles of bats. It appears
to wake them from hibernation before there are enough insects to keep
them from starving.

DNR Veterinarian Cindy Driscoll says the agency will implement a
regimen of restricted access and decontamination procedures for all
known bat locations. She says the disease is believed to be limited to
the mountains of western Maryland.

ARRIVEE AU CANADA....

Citation :

WHITE NOSE SYNDROME - CANADA: (ONTARIO) FIRST REPORT
****************************************************

The 1st case of white-nose fungus found in an Ontario bat colony
threatens the survival of a species. Canada's 1st reported case of a
disease that kills bats by the thousands has been discovered at a
hibernation site in the Bancroft-Minden area.

White-nose syndrome, a lethal fungus that has decimated populations
of bats in the northeast region of the United States, could pose a
threat to the survival of several species of bats in Canada. The name
of the disease refers to a ring of white fungus around the muzzles
and bodies of bats. The disease isn't fully understood yet, but
researchers know that it affects the bats during hibernation.

"It's a very significant threat," said John Dungavell, a wildlife
health policy advisor with Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources.
Dungavell said the disease could be transferred by physical contact
among the bats, as well as carried by humans to various hibernation
sites. However, there are no known human health risks associated with
the syndrome.

The disease, which was 1st discovered 4 years ago in a cave near
Albany, New York, has been associated with the death of more than one
million bats in the eastern U.S.

Dungavell said the number of bats found in Ontario with white-nose
syndrome is still very small. Bancroft is about 200 kilometres west
of Ottawa. However, the impact of the disease and how quickly it
spreads can't be underestimated. Within 2 years, a site in New York
with the largest colony of little brown bats in the world dwindled
from 200 000 to 3000 bats.

"In terms of assessing the impact here in Canada, we have to look to
the U.S.," said Dungavell, adding the mortality rate in the U.S. has
been 80 to 99 per cent amongst infected bats. Dungavell stressed the
importance of bats to wildlife diversity as they contribute to insect
population management.

The Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre and the ministry are
encouraging the public to stay away from caves and to report any
unusual bat mortality by calling 1-866-673-4781. The ministry is also
advising the public not to touch any bats, as a small percentage
carry rabies.

SUITE....

Citation :

White-nose Syndrome (WNS) has been confirmed in Little Brown Bats
(_Myotis lucifugus_) and Northern Long-eared Bats (_M.
septentrionalis_) at a hibernaculum about 100 km [62 miles] north of
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
<http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Newsroom/LatestNews/289821.html>

This is the 1st confirmed record of WNS in Canada; the nearest
affected US hibernaculum, in northern New York State, is about 50 km
[31 miles] south of the Canadian border, and about 225 km [140 miles]
from the Ontario site.

Affected bats had grossly visible fungal involvement of the muzzle
and wings. Microscopic skin lesions typical of those described in
bats affected by WNS contained fungal elements, including
asymmetrically curved conidia characteristic of _Geomyces
destructans_, which was confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction at the
USGS-National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, WI. About 500 bats
were evident in the hibernaculum involved, fewer than 4 percent of
which had grossly evident fungal growth. Day-flying bats and abnormal
mortality were not noted.

During late February/March 2010, day-flying bats or hibernacula with
bats appearing typical of WNS have been observed at several other
localities in Ontario, east of Longitude 81, and as far north as
Kirkland Lake, over 550 km [342 miles] from the US border.
Laboratory investigation is underway to confirm if WNS activity is
occurring at these sites.

During 2009, 2 of 12 hibernacula investigated in Eastern Ontario
contained small numbers of _Myotis_ spp. which were WNS suspects,
based on their appearance. However, _G. destructans_ was not
recognized on histopathology, nor was it isolated, or detected by PCR
at the USGS-NWHC. Abnormal bat behavior or mortality was not evident
at affected hibernacula. No bats with signs resembling WNS were
recognized at the hibernaculum reported confirmed here.

Movement of WNS into eastern Ontario is not unexpected, given
proximity to the epicenter of US WNS activity in adjacent upstate New
York, which prompted the surveillance begun in 2009. Ontario has no
species of cave bats recognized as threatened or endangered, in
contrast to the northeastern United States.

Despite the relatively limited mortality evident to date, WNS, once
established, likely will markedly affect populations of Ontario cave
bats, as it has in the USA. Ontario provides an alternative more
northern route for westward expansion of WNS toward bat populations
in the US Upper Midwest. Whether the relative paucity of known bat
hibernacula in Southwestern Ontario will inhibit spread into lower
Michigan and western Ohio is uncertain.

Citation :

Athlete's foot therapy tapped to treat bat-killing fungus
---------------------------------------------------------
Over the past 4 years, a mysterious white-nose fungus [responsible
for the White Nose Syndrome (WNS) - Mod.TG] has struck hibernating
North American bats. Populations in affected caves and mines can
experience death rates of more than 80 percent over a winter. In
desperation, an informal interagency task force of scientists from
state and federal agencies has just launched an experimental program
to fight the plague. Their weapon: a drug ordinarily used to treat
athlete's foot.

John Eisemann of the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service, better known as APHIS, in Fort Collins, Colorado,
mentioned the new program during his talk, here, at the American
Chemical Society's spring national meeting. He was describing legal
tactics by which wildlife officials can thwart invasive vertebrate
species with off-the-shelf chemicals.

He noted, for instance, how scientists have used a contraceptive
vaccine -- one designed to control white-tail deer populations -- on
rodents. It offered a nonlethal approach to reining in the population
explosion of non-native fox squirrels on a University of California
campus. In another instance, wildlife managers employed a cholesterol
inhibiting drug to reduce sex hormone levels -- and the urge to
reproduce -- among invasive monk parakeets. And on Guam, Eisemann's
team designed special traps baited with neonatal mouse carcasses.
Each bait had been implanted with a child's dose of acetaminophen,
the active ingredient in Tylenol. It proved amazingly effective in
strategically poisoning a major scourge, invasive brown tree snakes
-- and only that species.

The bat task force enlisted Eisemann's help to make sure that
whatever they tried would be legal. He's the go-to guy for
identifying what permissions, waivers or requests are required before
wildlife managers can apply poisons or anti-fertility drugs. The Food
and Drug Administration allows for some off-label use of an existing
drug as a veterinary prescription. And that's the tactic he arranged
for the task force to use with the athlete's foot drug.

Theoretically, Eisemann says, it should have been possible for
scientists to apply to get the chemical officially registered -- as
in approved -- for use on bats. But with the disease spreading like
wildfire and the potential market for a white-nose therapeutic tiny,
the time and expense didn't seem feasible.

Afraid of upsetting the ecological balance of endemic fungi in caves,
the scientists decided to pilot test the program in already perturbed
and disturbed environments -- a few mines in upstate New York.
Earlier this year, the researchers applied the antifungal medicine
onto the noses of several hundred bats. It killed the fungus,
Eisemann says. Now the goal is to see if and how it might have
affected the treated colonies' die-off rate, since only a small share
of any population had their noses rubbed with the antifungal drug.

Indeed, the scientists are hoping they might not need to treat the
entire colony. "If there's enough communal grooming," Eisemann said,
"they may only need to treat a certain percentage of the bats."

Mycète pathogène introduite d'Europe en Amérique du Nord?

http://www.mrnf.gouv.qc.ca/faune/sante-maladies/syndrome-chauve-souris.jsp

Si l'infection se propage, on pourrait assister a une extinction massive des chiroptères nord américains...