White Nose Syndrome Analysis

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White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease caused by the recently discovered white fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) (Minnis and Lindner 2013), formerly Geomyces destructans (Gargas et al. 2009). Lately, this emerging infectious disease has threatened several common species with extinction, causing a tragic decline in the hibernating insectivore bat population in North America (Frick et al. 2010). It is the first known pathogen to affect torpid animals (Turner et al 2014). WNS was first documented in 2006 in New York and has rapidly spread now to 26 States in the USA and 5 Canadian provinces (US Fish and Wildlife Service 2015). It is estimated that the death toll in North America since then has been 5–7 million bats (US Fish and Wildlife Service 2015). …show more content…
The fungus invades the glabrous skin of the bats, more specifically the nose, ears, muzzle and wing membrane giving them a white appearance (Blehert et al. 2009, Meteyer et al. 2009). Bats infected with WNS exhibit unusual behaviour during their winter hibernation, such as flying outside of the caves or mines during the day and clustering near the entrances (US Fish and Wildlife Service 2015). Currently the disease is still poorly understood (Blehert et al. 2009). Definitive diagnosis is based on histology (Meteyer et al. 2009) and molecular studies (Lorch et al. 2010). However, there is still no treatment or cure and the pathogenesis leading to mortality is still unknown. This review focuses on the recent advances/developments in the ongoing research to better understand the physiological effect of the