Fungus in White-Nose Bat Deaths Has Spread Rapidly to Missouri and Oklahoma

“This Woodward County bat infected with white-nose fungus is the
first known record of Geomyces destructans in Oklahoma's Region 2.”

- Richard Stark, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Oklahoma

Eight Little Brown Bats (Myotis lucifugus) hanging upside down in hibernation west of Albany, New York, inside Hailes Cave in February 2007. The white- nose fungus, Geomyces destructans, rings the noses of several bats. Mortality in some caves has reached 100%. Image © 2007 by Nancy Heaslip. — Eight Little Brown Bats (*Myotis lucifugus*) hanging upside down in hibernation west of Albany, New York, inside Hailes Cave in February 2007. The white- nose fungus, *Geomyces destructans*, rings the noses of several bats. Mortality in some caves has reached 100%. Image © 2007 by Nancy Heaslip.

May 20, 2010 New York, New York - The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that the white-nose fungus, Geomyces destructans, has spread faster and farther by May 2010 than anyone expected. The fungus has been wiping out bat populations along the eastern U. S. and spreading north into Quebec and Ontario, Canada. Now it is in the Great Smoky Mountains and other caves of Tennessee and has spread into Missouri. On May 18, 2010, the International Society for Infectious Diseases reported from Missouri:

Click here to subscribe and get instant access to read this report.

Click here to check your existing subscription status.

Existing members, login below: