Publication details
WHITE-NOSE SYNDROME IN PALEARCTIC BATS
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Spatiotemporal distribution patterns are important infectious disease epidemiological characteristics that improve our understanding of wild animal population health. White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease of hibernating bats associated with skin infection by Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), a recently recognized fungal pathogen, and it emerged as a panzootic disease in bats of the northern hemisphere. Severe skin damage results in disruption of torpor pattern, premature depletion of fat reserves and mortality only in affected Nearctic bats [1]. Therefore, better survival of bats with WNS in the Palearctic region can provide insights into future development of Nearctic populations. We studied hibernating bats from Central and Southern Europe to Eastern Siberia combining various research tools to investigate host-pathogen interactions and bat adaptations to WNS. We found that ecological and phylogenetic differences between species were irrelevant to Pd infection and WNS affects bats from two suborders. These are ecologically diverse and adopt a wide range of hibernating strategies suggesting that the pathogen may be a generalist. All bats hibernating within the distribution range of Pd may be at risk of infection [2]. While it is not known how long the Pd fungal pathogen has been present in the Palearctic region, or whether there were periods of mass mortality associated with infection in the past [3], our data alsosuggest that its geographic expansion apparently covers the whole Palearctic niche of bat hibernation. Although the disease is very common in the Palearctic, associated mortality is relatively rare and Palearctic bats species are able to tolerate the higher comparable loads of fully virulent fungus to their Nearctic counterparts. This strongly suggests an established evolutionary balance in the studied host-pathogen system with the mechanisms promoting tolerance to Pd infection being in operation in Palearctic bats [4]. Protective mechanisms differentiating the disease outcome between Nearctic and Palearctic bats are likely associated also with adaptive behavioural differences. Locality-specific model of hibernation behaviour in Palearctic bats showed stability across time. Arousal bouts of bats in contaminated Palearctic hibernacula do not increase in frequency and the bats are able to utilize specific behavioural adaptations – cold movement or cold arousal [5]. |