WNS Hits the West Coast

What wasn’t expected for another decade, white-nose syndrome has appeared on the west coast of the US, near North Bend, Washington. From an article by Dr. Chris Cornelison of Georgia State University, for The Conversation,

The news hit the WNS and bat conservation community hard. For the previous 10 years, WNS has spread in a stepwise manner from state to state in a radial pattern from Albany, New York, which is thought to be where the infections started. The consistency of this spread allowed researchers to model the movement of the pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, with an anticipated arrival on the Pacific Coast in 2026.

Researchers have been developing strategies to control WNS and prevent the massive bat mortalities that have been the hallmark of WNS since 2007. And yet, the disease has spread faster than predicted. Where does this new point of infection leave researchers developing techniques to stall this devastating disease?

Read the entire article at The Conversation.