Latest News Archive

• White-nose Syndrome reaches into Delaware. With this addition WNS now impacts 13 States and 2 Canadian Provinces. Read Delaware’s announcement here.

 

• White-nose Syndrome has reached Missouri. The fungus associated with WNS has been confirmed on a bat in a Missouri cave. Read the news release here.

 

• WNS has been confirmed from White Oak Blowhole cave in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. The cave contains the largest known population of endangered Indiana bats in the state. Read news release here.

 

• WNS moves into Quebec, Canada. View the press release.
  View - White Nose Syndrome Detected In Ontario Bats.

 

• WNS is now documented in 11 states. Maryland recorded its first documented case of WNS last week. Read more here.

 

• White-nose Syndrome has moved into Tennessee, bringing it ever closer to our largest hibernating colonies of endangered Indiana, gray, Virginia big-eared and Ozark big-eared bats. Read the Nature Conservancy press release here.

 

• White-nose Syndrome FAQ's sheets now available in English (update will soon be available in Spanish):
  English

 

• Geomyces destructans found in France: The fungus associated with WNS has been documented on a bat in France. See the published article in Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal here.

• The U.S. Congress has approved $1.9 million in federal funding for research to identify the cause and seek solutions to White-nose Syndrome. The funds, included in the final version of the 2010 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, mark a dramatic increase from the initial allocation of just $500,000 for monitoring affected bat populations. The WNS-research support was added by a joint committee that resolved differences between House and Senate versions of the bill. Both houses of Congress approved it on Thursday (October 29). Read more.

• In light of the dire need to stop WNS before entire species disappear: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Oct. 26 recipients of WNS grants through its Preventing Extinction Program. Funds were awarded to six research projects designed to help determine how WNS is killing bats and how this devastating disease might be controlled. Read the news release here.

• One of the grants was awarded to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park to establish a captive population of endangered Virginia big-eared bats at the Conservation & Research Center near Front Royal, Virginia. There are only about 15,000 Virginia big-eared bats remaining in a few caves in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina. White-nose Syndrome has already infected some caves in this area, and if it continues, this bat subspecies would likely become extinct. Additional information about the Virginia big-eared bat captive-breeding program can be found here



• Indiana DNR closes caves to protect bats. All public caves, sinkholes, tunnels and abandoned mines on Department of Natural Resources properties in Indiana are closed until April 30, 2010, as a precaution against the uncontrolled spread of White-nosed Syndrome. Read more at http://dnr.IN.gov/batdisease.



• BCI gives WNS lecture at the National Zoological Park Conservation and Research Center. BCI’s Mylea Bayless is contributing to the Fall Lecture Series on October 21 at the National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, VA. Read more here.
  
   
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just released the draft framework for a coordinated WNS national plan. It can be viewed here. According to the USFWS, preliminary data indicate that the population of endangered Indiana bats in the Northeast Region dropped 30 percent from 2007 to 2009. Most of this mortality is attributed directly to WNS.
  
   
• CBS evening news highlights White-nose Syndrome. Watch the story.
  
   
• The final report is now available from the Second White-nose Syndrome Science Strategy Meeting held May 27-28, 2009, in Austin, Texas. Organized by Bat Conservation International and the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University, the meeting included top WNS scientists and wildlife managers. The report includes a review of current knowledge about the causes and impacts of this devastating disease, critical gaps in that knowledge and top-priority research needs. Download the report
  
   
• Federal funding for WNS is in jeopardy! Please contact your Senator and Congressperson immediately and urge them to provide funds for WNS research before it is too late. The House bill has already passed, but the Senate Appropriations Committee report (111-38, dated July 7) contains only $500,000 of the $11 million identified by the scientific community for immediate WNS funding. Read our letter to members or example text for your own letter to Congress. 
• Scientists recently convened in Knoxville, TN, to develop predictive models to determine how and under what conditions White Nose Syndrome (WNS) might spread. Read the Summary Report on the NIMBioS Investigative Workshop.
• Read about the BCI sponsored May 2009 Science Strategy Meeting in Austin, TX.
  
   
• Read the Consensus Statement of the 2009 Strategy Meeting [pdf format].
  
   
• Read the conclusions of the 2008 emergency science meeting on White-Nose Syndrome [pdf format].