Little brown bat with white-nose syndrome in a Vermont mine WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
White-nose syndrome (WNS), the disease decimating bat populations in the Northeastern US and into Canada, is caused by a single species of fungus and is not the result of co-infection by any other pathogen, according to researchers studying the once-mysterious scourge.
Geomyces destructans, a cold-loving fungus first described in 2009, had been isolated from bats suffering from WNS, but its role in causing the disease was controversial as fungal infections in mammals are seldom fatal in isolation, and typically exploit immune systems weakened by other pathogens. But researchers working with healthy little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus)—one of the species hit hardest by WNS—have shown, in laboratory conditions approximating those in the hibernation habitats where the disease occurs, that exposure to G. destructans alone can cause ...
