Handout documents @ WNS Meeting:

Connecticut DEP Wildlife Report

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department Report

New York Pathology/Virology/Mycology

Pennsylvania Game Commission Report

Scientists, cavers gather in NY to brainstorm on bats
By MARY ESCH | Associated Press Writer
June 11, 2008

ALBANY, N.Y. - Researchers, cavers and others interested in bats traveled to Albany from across the U.S. and Canada for a three-day brainstorming session on the mysterious, mass die-off of bats in the Northeast.

The cause of the deaths, which have been documented in about 20 bat hibernation caves in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, remains unknown. The phenomenon is called "white-nose syndrome" because a mold-like fungus is found powdering the snouts of many of the dead bats.

"The purpose of the meeting was to bring everybody together to share information so we're all working from a common knowledge base," Susi von Oettingen, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist from Concord, N.H., said as the meeting wound down on Wednesday afternoon.

The massive scale of the die-off was recognized in early January. This week's meeting was an effort to coordinate various research studies; share theories on possible causes; develop priorities for field studies during the summer breeding season and next winter's hibernation; map the progression of the die-off; explore funding sources; and create a clear definition of the syndrome.

Task forces were set up to study a broad range of issues _ for example, developing a common scoring system for bat-wing damage to be used by researchers examining bats in the field.

Participants came from 14 states, eight universities, several federal agencies, and Canadian wildlife agencies.

The only comparable mass die-off, von Oettingen said, is colony collapse disorder, which started mysteriously wiping out honeybee colonies in the winter of 2006-07. In response to that phenomenon, federal agencies and universities held a major workshop in April 2007 to share knowledge and develop an action plan.

Several scientists involved in that effort presented a workshop at the Albany bat meeting to make suggestions for coordinating team research.

"They basically were training us in how to deal with something of this magnitude," von Oettingen said.

"The push now is to recognize this as a major regional, potentially national issue, and go after secure funding so we can continue to investigate it," von Oettingen said. "This is the first opportunity to get together to discuss what we've found and where do we go from here," said Alan Hicks, a wildlife biologist with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

Peter Youngbaer of the National Speleological Society and Northeastern Cave Conservancy, which own and manage caves, said many members of caving groups have been helping research the bat die-off. "As cave owners and managers, we're very concerned about what's going on with the bat hibernacula," Youngbaer said. The speleological society owns three caves where white-nose syndrome was first identified.

"The 12,000 members of the NSS are involved in sampling both in the affected region and in other areas which will serve as controls," Youngbaer said.

Beth Buckles is an anatomic pathologist at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, one of the labs that has been doing autopsies on bats. "We're looking for tissue changes as well as infectious agents or contaminants," Buckles said. "We have found that many of the bats coming out of the affected hibernacula are very thin. We want to pursue why they're thin. It could be because of physiologic problems, environmental problems, or an infectious agent."

A priority is to evaluate what's going on in the summer before hibernation, Buckles said. "We'd like to look at population numbers, how well the bats are breeding, and what's happening to them right before they go into the hibernaculum. If they seem to be OK going into the caves, that would indicate there's something in the caves that's affecting them."

Working groups set up at the meeting will decide which bats to look at, and when, Buckles said. "If there's a maternity colony that we have a lot of background data on from before the outbreak, that might be a priority area to look at," she said.

If bats disappear from the landscape, there could be major ecological consequences, von Oettingen said. Bats are voracious predators of insects, with lactating females eating up to 73 percent of their body weight in insects per night, she said. "This is unprecedented," von Oettingen said. "We don't know what effect it will have on the insect population and the environment if bats disappear. But it's going to be a hole in the ecosystem and we don't know what's going to fill it."

Scientists Target ’ÄòGravest Threat’Äô to Bats
Posted:¬Ý6/12/2008

A select group of scientists, after meeting with colleagues from government agencies, universities and nonprofit groups, is recommending a research road map of sorts for attacking what may be the gravest threat ever faced by bats ’Äì a mysterious malady known as White-nose Syndrome.

WNS has killed tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of hibernating bats of at least five species in the northeastern United States during the past two winters. Mortality rates exceeding 90 percent have been reported in some hibernation caves, yet the cause is not known.

Die-offs have been documented at caves and mines in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and several possible WNS sites recently were reported in Pennsylvania. A year ago, it was found in just two caves in New York.

If unsolved, this could become an ecological calamity. Bats consume enormous quantities of night-flying insects, including many of the nation’Äôs leading crop pests. A nursing mother bat can eat up to her own weight in insects in a single night, and some nursery colonies include millions of bats.

The goal of the three-day (June 9-11) White-nose Syndrome Meeting in Albany, N.Y., was to identify the most urgent and promising research directions for investigators and management agencies that are working to identify the cause (or causes) of this unprecedented bat mortality. With so much at stake, organizers hope the results will help limit redundancy in research and suggest the most efficient approaches for solving this tragic puzzle before the damage becomes irreparable.

The 27 scientists at the Science Strategy Session concluded that immediate research should attack three top-priority questions concerning the cause of White-nose Syndrome:
*Why are affected bats starving?
*Are pathogens a direct cause of mortality?
*Are contaminants threatening either the bats or their food supply?

Most participants suspect that a combination of factors may be involved in these massive die-offs.

The malady received its name because many affected bats are found with a dusting of white fungus on their faces, although the fungus’Äô role in the die-offs is unclear. An important part of the pathogen research will try to identify the fungus and determine whether it is a cause or result of the bats’Äô poor condition.

Dead or dying bats typically are emaciated (with little or none of the stored fat that bats must have to survive months of winter hibernation) and often dehydrated. This past winter, large numbers of these bats emerged from hibernation caves much earlier than normal, and dead bats were sometimes found scattered thickly on the ground near cave entrances.

This spring and summer, scientists have been finding unprecedented numbers of bats with wing injuries, which apparently were sustained during winter months either from fungal attack or from emerging from hibernation while temperatures were still below freezing.

One affected species, the Indiana myotis, is on the U.S. Endangered Species List. Little brown myotis are hardest hit, while northern myotis, eastern small-footed myotis and tri-colored bats (formerly called eastern pipistrelles) are also confirmed as WNS victims.

Bats are especially hard-pressed to recover from shocks to their populations, since females of most species bear just one pup per year. Many bat species migrate long distances between summer foraging grounds and winter hibernation sites. If WNS is caused by a pathogen, it could be carried along during migrations.

The emergency meeting was organized by Bat Conservation International, Boston University, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Geological Survey, in close collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

On day one, 13 scientists, including specialists in bat ecology and physiology, pathology, infectious diseases, toxicology and environmental contaminants, presented their research findings and offered hypotheses for immediate study. More than 80 participants from two Canadian and 20 U.S. state and federal agencies, eight universities and four non-government organizations then discussed the existing knowledge and pending questions about the syndrome.

Managers and scientists met separately on the second day as each group identified what it considers the most pressing issues for solving White-nose Syndrome. They came together on day three to jointly plan the coordination and management of critical research efforts.

Some biologists have noted similarities between the bat die-offs and the ’Äúcolony collapse disease’Äù that has devastated honeybee colonies in the United States and Europe in recent years. Although no firm evidence links the two, some suggest mass fatalities among such essential organisms as bees and bats should sound an urgent and broad-based alarm over our stewardship of the environment.

Bat Conservation International organized funding for meeting facilitation and¬Ýscientist travel, with leadership support from the Disney Rapid Response Fund, the National Speleological Society, Valerie and Anton Schindler, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also contributed logistical support.

To help us combat this severe threat to North America’Äôs bats, please support BCI’Äôs Fund for White-nose Syndrome Research.