{"id":28609,"date":"2025-05-28T15:07:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28609"},"modified":"2025-05-28T15:23:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:23:05","slug":"a-fungus-devastated-north-american-bats-a-new-species-could-deliver-a-killer-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28609","title":{"rendered":"A Fungus Devastated North American Bats. A New Species Could Deliver a Killer Blow."},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the winter of 2006, biologists in New York State got a gruesome surprise. As they surveyed colonies of hibernating bats, they discovered heaps of dead animals on the floors of caves and abandoned mines.<\/p>\n

The culprit was a fungus new to science. It caused white-nose disease, named for the fuzzy pale tendrils that sprouted from the nostrils of its victims. (The disease was originally known as white-nose syndrome, but was renamed in recent years.) The fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or P. destructans, has spread<\/a> from New York to 40 states and nine Canadian provinces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most dramatic wildlife mortality event that\u2019s ever been documented from a pathogen,\u201d said DeeAnn Reeder, a disease ecologist at Bucknell University. \u201cMillions and millions and millions of animals have died.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, bat experts have gained some guarded optimism<\/a>. They have found ways to protect bats from white-nose disease and to help infected animals survive. But a new study<\/a> published on Wednesday raised the possibility that North American bats could get slammed by a second wave of white-nose disease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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An extensive genetic survey has found that Pseudogymnoascus destructans is actually two species native to Europe and Asia. Only one has reached North America. If the second one is introduced to the continent, it could start another devastating epidemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a reboot,\u201d said Dr. Reeder, who was not involved in the study. \u201cI think it\u2019s terrifying, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the winter of 2006, biologists in New York State got a gruesome surprise. As they surveyed colonies of hibernating bats, they discovered heaps of dead animals on the floors of caves and abandoned mines.The culprit was a fungus new to science. It caused white-nose disease, named for the fuzzy pale tendrils that sprouted from the nostrils of its victims. (The disease was originally known as white-nose syndrome, but was renamed in recent years.) The fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or P. destructans, has spread from New York to 40 states and nine Canadian provinces.\u201cThis is the most dramatic wildlife mortality event that\u2019s ever been documented from a pathogen,\u201d said DeeAnn Reeder, a disease ecologist at Bucknell University. \u201cMillions and millions and millions of animals have died.\u201dIn recent years, bat experts have gained some guarded optimism. They have found ways to protect bats from white-nose disease and to help infected animals survive. But a new study published on Wednesday raised the possibility that North American bats could get slammed by a second wave of white-nose disease.An extensive genetic survey has found that Pseudogymnoascus destructans is actually two species native to Europe and Asia. Only one has reached North America. If the second one is introduced to the continent, it could start another devastating epidemic.\u201cIt\u2019s like a reboot,\u201d said Dr. Reeder, who was not involved in the study. \u201cI think it\u2019s terrifying, honestly.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28611,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28609"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28612,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28609\/revisions\/28612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}