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Evidence mounts people may also spread bat disease

Print | Comments () Posted by Beth Daley May 9, 2009 08:39 AM

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By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

UPDATE: Thanks to Peter Youngbaer who pointed out an error, I should have said only the Eastern region is closed - and US Forest Service has indicated the Southern Region will soon follow. It is fixed in the story below.

As white nose syndrome, the devastating illness that is killing hundreds of thousands of bats marches its way across the country, officials are trying to ensure humans aren’t inadvertently spreading it.

Bats with white nose in a Chester, Mass. mine (USFWS)

The U.S. Forest Service recently closed caves and mines on their property for a year in the Eastern region which stretches from Maine to Virginia and west to Wisconsin. The agency has also indicated it will likely do the same in its Southern region. Meanwhile the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in April asked the public to observe a voluntary caving ban in 17 states and the International Congress of Speleology canceled trips in those states.

Scientists don’t know for sure what is transmitting the disease which paints affected bats with a white fuzzy fungus and depletes their fat reserves so greatly it appears many are starving to death. While researchers suspect bats are probably spreading the disease among each other, there is mounting evidence that humans may be aiding.

That’s because the fungus persists in caves and mines year-round and its spores can easily attach to skin, clothing and equipment – and may be able to survive for weeks or months afterward. Another clue is that white nose seemed to leapfrog over other states this year - taking hold in West Virginia and Virginia caves popular with miners.

“We suspect that white-nose syndrome may be transmitted by humans inadvertently carrying WNS from cave to cave where bats hibernate,” said Northeast Regional Director Marvin Moriarty of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a recent press release.

Last week, 25 U.S. Senators and Representatives, including several from New England, urged U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for more money to help study and slow the disease.

For more information about white nose, go to http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html