A fluffy white fungus and a little brown bat. A deafening silence and an uncertain future. In this episode, we explore one of the most devastating wildlife diseases in recent times, white-nose syndrome. Since its debut in North America in 2006, this fungal pathogen has spread across much of the continent, leaving millions of dead bats in its wake. Why is it so deadly? Which bats are at risk? Where did it come from? And most importantly, what can we do about it? We attempt to answer these questions and more about this pernicious pathogen, and we are so delighted to be joined by Dr. Winifred Frick, Chief Scientist at Bat Conservation International and Associate Research Professor at UC Santa Cruz, who helps us take a closer look at the ecology and impact of this disease on North American bat populations.
| History | Biology |
| Frick, Winifred F., Sébastien J. Puechmaille, and Craig KR Willis. “White-nose syndrome in bats.” Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of bats in a changing world. Springer, Cham, 2016. 245-262. | WhiteNoseSyndrome.org |
| Blehert, David S., et al. “Bat white-nose syndrome: an emerging fungal pathogen?.” Science 323.5911 (2009): 227-227. | Frick W.F., Puechmaille S.J., Willis C.K.R. (2016) White-Nose Syndrome in Bats. In: Voigt C., Kingston T. (eds) Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25220-9_9 |
| Blehert, David S. “Fungal disease and the developing story of bat white-nose syndrome.” PLoS Pathog 8.7 (2012): e1002779. | Lorch, J. M., Meteyer, C. U., Behr, M. J., Boyles, J. G., Cryan, P. M., Hicks, A. C., … & Blehert, D. S. (2011). Experimental infection of bats with Geomyces destructans causes white-nose syndrome. Nature, 480(7377), 376-378. |
| Boyles, Justin G., et al. “Economic importance of bats in agriculture.” Science 332.6025 (2011): 41-42. | Meteyer, C. U., Buckles, E. L., Blehert, D. S., Hicks, A. C., Green, D. E., Shearn-Bochsler, V., … & Behr, M. J. (2009). Histopathologic criteria to confirm white-nose syndrome in bats. Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation, 21(4), 411-414. |
| Campana, Michael G., et al. “White-nose syndrome fungus in a 1918 bat specimen from France.” Emerging infectious diseases 23.9 (2017): 1611. | Bouma HR, Carey HV, Kroese FG. Hibernation: the immune system at rest? J Leukoc Biol. 2010 Oct;88(4):619-24. doi: 10.1189/jlb.0310174. Epub 2010 Jun 2. PMID: 20519639. |
| Davy, Christina M., et al. “White-nose syndrome is associated with increased replication of a naturally persisting coronaviruses in bats.” Scientific reports 8.1 (2018): 1-12. | Mayberry, H. W., McGuire, L. P., & Willis, C. K. (2018). Body temperatures of hibernating little brown bats reveal pronounced behavioural activity during deep torpor and suggest a fever response during white-nose syndrome. Journal of Comparative Physiology B, 188(2), 333-343. |
| Drees, Kevin P., et al. “Phylogenetics of a fungal invasion: origins and widespread dispersal of white-nose syndrome.” MBio 8.6 (2017). | Langwig, K. E., Hoyt, J. R., Parise, K. L., Frick, W. F., Foster, J. T., & Kilpatrick, A. M. (2017). Resistance in persisting bat populations after white-nose syndrome invasion. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 372(1712), 20160044.Blehert, D. S., Hicks, A. C., Behr, M., Meteyer, C. U., Berlowski-Zier, B. M., Buckles, E. L., … & Stone, W. B. (2009). Bat white-nose syndrome: an emerging fungal pathogen?. Science, 323(5911), 227-227. |
| Frick, Winifred F., et al. “Pathogen dynamics during invasion and establishment of white‐nose syndrome explain mechanisms of host persistence.” (2017): 624-631. | Warnecke, L., Turner, J. M., Bollinger, T. K., Lorch, J. M., Misra, V., Cryan, P. M., Wibbelt, G., Blehert, D. S., & Willis, C. K. (2012). Inoculation of bats with European Geomyces destructans supports the novel pathogen hypothesis for the origin of white-nose syndrome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(18), 6999–7003. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1200374109 |
| Geiser, Fritz, and Clare Stawski. “Hibernation and torpor in tropical and subtropical bats in relation to energetics, extinctions, and the evolution of endothermy.” Integrative and comparative biology 51.3 (2011): 337-348. | Moore, M.S., Field, K.A., Behr, M.J., Turner, G.G., Furze, M.E., Stern, D.W., Allegra, P.R., Bouboulis, S.A., Musante, C.D., Vodzak, M.E. and Biron, M.E., 2018. Energy conserving thermoregulatory patterns and lower disease severity in a bat resistant to the impacts of white-nose syndrome. Journal of Comparative Physiology B, 188(1), pp.163-176. |
| Hoyt, Joseph R., A. Marm Kilpatrick, and Kate E. Langwig. “Ecology and impacts of white-nose syndrome on bats.” Nature Reviews Microbiology (2021): 1-15. | Frick, W. F., Pollock, J. F., Hicks, A. C., Langwig, K. E., Reynolds, D. S., Turner, G. G., … & Kunz, T. H. (2010). An emerging disease causes regional population collapse of a common North American bat species. Science, 329(5992), 679-682. |
| Langwig, Kate E., et al. “Resistance in persisting bat populations after white-nose syndrome invasion.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 372.1712 (2017): 20160044. | Frick, W. F., Puechmaille, S. J., Hoyt, J. R., Nickel, B. A., Langwig, K. E., Foster, J. T., … & Kilpatrick, A. M. (2015). Disease alters macroecological patterns of n orth a merican bats. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 24(7), 741-749. |
| Langwig, Kate E., et al. “Host and pathogen ecology drive the seasonal dynamics of a fungal disease, white-nose syndrome.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282.1799 (2015): 20142335. | Hoyt, J.R., Langwig, K.E., Sun, K., Lu, G., Parise, K.L., Jiang, T., Frick, W.F., Foster, J.T., Feng, J. and Kilpatrick, A.M., 2016. Host persistence or extinction from emerging infectious disease: insights from white-nose syndrome in endemic and invading regions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1826), p.20152861. |
| Lazzeroni, Margaret E., Frank T. Burbrink, and Nancy B. Simmons. “Hibernation in bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) did not evolve through positive selection of leptin.” Ecology and evolution 8.24 (2018): 12576-12596. | Frick, W.F., Cheng, T.L., Langwig, K.E., Hoyt, J.R., Janicki, A.F., Parise, K.L., Foster, J.T. and Kilpatrick, A.M., 2017. Pathogen dynamics during invasion and establishment of white‐nose syndrome explain mechanisms of host persistence. |
| Leopardi, Stefania, Damer Blake, and Sébastien J. Puechmaille. “White-nose syndrome fungus introduced from Europe to North America.” Current Biology 25.6 (2015): R217-R219. | Hoyt, J.R., Langwig, K.E., White, J.P., Kaarakka, H.M., Redell, J.A., Parise, K.L., Frick, W.F., Foster, J.T. and Kilpatrick, A.M., 2019. Field trial of a probiotic bacteria to protect bats from white-nose syndrome. Scientific reports, 9(1), pp.1-9. |
| Maher, Sean P., et al. “Spread of white-nose syndrome on a network regulated by geography and climate.” Nature communications 3.1 (2012): 1-8. | Rocke, T.E., Kingstad-Bakke, B., Wüthrich, M., Stading, B., Abbott, R.C., Isidoro-Ayza, M., Dobson, H.E., dos Santos Dias, L., Galles, K., Lankton, J.S. and Falendysz, E.A., 2019. Virally-vectored vaccine candidates against white-nose syndrome induce anti-fungal immune response in little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus). Scientific reports, 9(1), pp.1-12. |
| Warnecke, Lisa, et al. “Inoculation of bats with European Geomyces destructans supports the novel pathogen hypothesis for the origin of white-nose syndrome.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109.18 (2012): 6999-7003. | Palmer, J.M., Drees, K.P., Foster, J.T. and Lindner, D.L., 2018. Extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet light in the fungal pathogen causing white-nose syndrome of bats. Nature communications, 9(1), pp.1-10. |
| Wilder, Aryn P., et al. “Risk factors associated with mortality from white-nose syndrome among hibernating bat colonies.” Biology Letters 7.6 (2011): 950-953. | Hartman, C.J., Mester, J.C., Hare, P.M. and Cohen, A.I., 2020. Novel inactivation of the causative fungal pathogen of white-nose syndrome with methoxsalen plus ultraviolet A or B radiation. Plos one, 15(9), p.e0239001. |
| Zukal, Jan, et al. “White-nose syndrome without borders: Pseudogymnoascus destructans infection tolerated in Europe and Palearctic Asia but not in North America.” Scientific reports 6.1 (2016): 1-17. | Frick, W.F., Kingston, T. and Flanders, J., 2019. A review of the major threats and challenges to global bat conservation. Ann. NY Acad. Sci, 1469(1), pp.5-25. |
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