Publication details
WHITE-NOSE SYNDROME DETECTED IN BATS OVER AN EXTENSIVE AREA OF RUSSIA
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Spatiotemporal distribution patterns are important characteristics of infectious disease epidemiology that improve our understanding of wild animal population health. Geographic distribution of infectious diseases is modulated by climate-associated factors inducing changes in the host-pathogen system. Variation in the host- pathogen system attributable to climate includes changes in virulence, adaptation of the pathogen to hosts and vectors, the 19 pathogen’s ability to survive in the environment after being shed from the host, along with host population ecology, susceptibility and immune function. While bats have been recognised as important reservoir hosts for a great variety of emerging infectious agents, the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, causative agent of white- nose syndrome (WNS), is the first pathogen to threaten chiropteran biodiversity. Between 2014 and 2017 we sampled 188 bats (11 species) at 11 hibernation sites from the European slopes of the Ural Mountains through the Western Siberian Plain, Siberia and the Russian Far East. Prevalence of UV-documented WNS ranged between 16 and 76% in species of relevant sample size. To conclude, the bat pathogen P. destructans is widely present in Russian hibernacula but infection remains at low intensity, despite the high exposure rate. While it is not known how long the P. destructans fungal pathogen has been present in the Palaearctic region, or whether there have been periods of mass mortality associated with infection in the past, our data suggest that its geographic expansion apparently covers the whole Palaearctic niche of bat hibernation. Such findings warrant development of active surveillance programmes to better understand its epizootiology and to protect wildlife in general |