28 States Receive Federal Grant Money to Combat White-nose Syndrome in Bats

Nearly $1 million in federal grants will be spread across 28 U.S. states to support research and detection of white-nose syndrome, a deadly fungal disease responsible for decimating bat colonies around North America.

White-nose syndrome (WNS) has caused the death of millions of bats in 22 states as well as five Canadian provinces. Bats infected with WNS will almost certainly die; the current estimate of bat population decline in the northeastern United States where WNS has been documented is about 80 percent, according to the National Wildlife Health Center.

"This is one of the most devastating diseases affecting wildlife in eastern North America," said Wendi Weber, co-chair of the White-Nose Syndrome Executive Committee and Service Northeast Regional Director. "Best estimates indicate that it has killed more than 5.7 million bats."

In Pennsylvania alone, WNS has eradicated 98 percent of the state's cave-dwelling bat populations.

WNS first appeared in US bat colonies over the winter of 2006-2007 in New York. It has since spread rapidly, with reports of the disease suspected in colonies as far away as Oklahoma.

A fungus called Geomyces destructans is the causative agent of the disease, but the specific mechanism of how it causes mortality is not completely understood. The fungus kills the bats by causing them to arouse too frequently while in hibernation, severely depleting the mammals' fat reserves.

The Endangered Species Recovery program made the funding for the grants available. Twenty-eight states submitted requests for funding, with all of them receiving between $6,877 (Delaware) and $47,500 (Michigan, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin).

Click here for a full list of the states and their proposed grant amounts.

"These grants provide essential support to our state partners in responding to this disease," said Jeremy Coleman, national WNS coordinator at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The research, monitoring, and actions made possible by these grants have yielded valuable results and insights for our national response to white-nose syndrome."