In the winter of 2006, New York State biologists had a horrible surprise. As they studied the colonies of battle-fledes, they discovered lots of dead animals on the floors of the caves and abandoned mines.
The culprit was a new fungus in science. He caused a white nose disease, appointed for the blurred pale spinning tears that have germinated nostrils from his victims. (The disease was originally known as white nose syndrome, but has been renamed in recent years.) The fungus, pseudogymnoascus destructans, or P. destructans, A propagé From New York to 40 states and nine Canadian provinces.
“This is the most dramatic wildlife mortality event that has ever been documented from a pathogen,” said Deeann Reeder, an ecologist of the disease at Bucknell University. “Millions and millions of animals have died.”
In recent years, bats in bats have won Kept optimism. They found ways to protect bats from white nose and help the infected animals to survive. But A new study On Wednesday, published raised the possibility that North American bats can be criticized by a second wave of white nose disease.
An in -depth genetic study revealed that pseudogymnoascus destructans is in fact two species from Europe and Asia. Only one reached North America. If the second is presented on the continent, it could start another devastating epidemic.
“It’s like a restart,” said Dr. Reeder, who was not involved in the study. “I think it’s terrifying, honestly.”
