MONROE - A widespread bat-killing fungal epidemic has spread to Green County, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reports.
Cases of white-nose syndrome were discovered in Green County caves last winter, the report revealed. Other cases of the disease were found in Sauk, Manitowoc, Douglas, Iron and Pierce counties.
White-nose syndrome is an affliction caused by the spores of a cave-dwelling fungus that thrives in cold weather.
The infection, named for the fungal growth that occurs on the noses of infected bats, affects hibernating bats. More than 90 percent of all infected bats die from the disease.
The disease threatens four of the eight recorded bat species in Wisconsin: the big brown bat, the little brown bat, the northern long-eared bat and the eastern pipistrelle. All four species are cave-dwelling bats.
Melissa Behr, bat pathologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the disease kills bats primarily by disrupting their hibernation processes.
"Bats slow down their metabolic processes during hibernation," Behr said, adding that a bat could survive for a year of hibernation on two grams of body fat.
"But the infection causes them to leave hibernation periodically to urinate and mate and that uses energy," Behr. "And they would have energy to spare, but they keep doing it."
Eventually, Behr said, the infected bats starve to death. Some of them attempt to leave their caves to find food and die almost instantly.
Once the spores find a host, they are very difficult to remove, Behr said. On the other hand, the fungus cannot survive during warmer seasons, nor can it infect non-hibernating bats.
So far, no cure for the disease has been discovered, nor have any preventative countermeasures been successful. Some proposed strategies have included spraying infected caves with a bacteria that can kill the fungus, but nothing has proven successful yet, Behr said.
"It can be very hard to see how wildlife diseases are managed," Behr said. "A lot of the time, they're treated as hopeless, like there's nothing we can do."
Until a solution is discovered, people who enter caves in infected areas will be required by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to disinfect any equipment that may have encountered the fungus before entering and upon leaving.
Cases of white-nose syndrome were discovered in Green County caves last winter, the report revealed. Other cases of the disease were found in Sauk, Manitowoc, Douglas, Iron and Pierce counties.
White-nose syndrome is an affliction caused by the spores of a cave-dwelling fungus that thrives in cold weather.
The infection, named for the fungal growth that occurs on the noses of infected bats, affects hibernating bats. More than 90 percent of all infected bats die from the disease.
The disease threatens four of the eight recorded bat species in Wisconsin: the big brown bat, the little brown bat, the northern long-eared bat and the eastern pipistrelle. All four species are cave-dwelling bats.
Melissa Behr, bat pathologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the disease kills bats primarily by disrupting their hibernation processes.
"Bats slow down their metabolic processes during hibernation," Behr said, adding that a bat could survive for a year of hibernation on two grams of body fat.
"But the infection causes them to leave hibernation periodically to urinate and mate and that uses energy," Behr. "And they would have energy to spare, but they keep doing it."
Eventually, Behr said, the infected bats starve to death. Some of them attempt to leave their caves to find food and die almost instantly.
Once the spores find a host, they are very difficult to remove, Behr said. On the other hand, the fungus cannot survive during warmer seasons, nor can it infect non-hibernating bats.
So far, no cure for the disease has been discovered, nor have any preventative countermeasures been successful. Some proposed strategies have included spraying infected caves with a bacteria that can kill the fungus, but nothing has proven successful yet, Behr said.
"It can be very hard to see how wildlife diseases are managed," Behr said. "A lot of the time, they're treated as hopeless, like there's nothing we can do."
Until a solution is discovered, people who enter caves in infected areas will be required by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to disinfect any equipment that may have encountered the fungus before entering and upon leaving.