White-Nose Syndrome Fungus (Geomyces destructans) in Bats, Europe - EID - CDC Volume 16, Number 8–August 2010

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Volume 16, Number 8–August 2010
Research
White-Nose Syndrome Fungus (Geomyces destructans) in Bats, Europe
Gudrun Wibbelt , Andreas Kurth, David Hellmann, Manfred Weishaar, Alex Barlow, Michael Veith, Julia Prüger, Tamás Görföl, Lena Grosche, Fabio Bontadina, Ulrich Zöphel, Hans-Peter Seidl, Paul M. Cryan, and David S. Blehert
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany (G. Wibbelt); Robert Koch Institute, Berlin (A. Kurth); University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany (D. Hellmann); Bat Conservation Working Group, Gusterath, Germany (M. Weishaar); Veterinary Laboratory Agency, Somerset, UK (A. Barlow); Trier University, Trier, Germany (M. Veith); Coordination Agency for Bat Protection in Thuringia, Erfurt, Germany (J. Prüger); Nature Conservation Foundation of Tolna County, Szekszárd, Hungary (T. Görföl); Echolot GbR, Münster, Germany (L. Grosche); SWILD–Urban Ecology and Wildlife Research, Zurich, Switzerland (F. Bontadina); Saxonian State Office for Environment, Agriculture and Geology, Dresden-Pillnitz, Germany (U. Zöphel); Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany (H.-P. Seidl); US Geological Survey, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA (P.M. Cryan); and US Geological Survey, Madison, Wisconsin, USA (D.S. Blehert)

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Abstract
White-nose syndrome is an emerging disease in North America that has caused substantial declines in hibernating bats. A recently identified fungus (Geomyces destructans) causes skin lesions that are characteristic of this disease. Typical signs of this infection were not observed in bats in North America before white-nose syndrome was detected. However, unconfirmed reports from Europe indicated white fungal growth on hibernating bats without associated deaths. To investigate these differences, hibernating bats were sampled in Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary to determine whether G. destructans is present in Europe. Microscopic observations, fungal culture, and genetic analyses of 43 samples from 23 bats indicated that 21 bats of 5 species in 3 countries were colonized by G. destructans. We hypothesize that G. destructans is present throughout Europe and that bats in Europe may be more immunologically or behaviorally resistant to G. destructans than their congeners in North America because they potentially coevolved with the fungus.

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a recently emerged wildlife disease in North America, which in 4 years has resulted in unprecedented deaths of hibernating bats in the northeastern United States (1–3), and is a widespread epizootic disease among bats. Although we have searched the literature describing observations of hibernating bats, we have been unable to find any similar historical accounts of white fungus growing on live hibernating bats in North America before the recent emergence of WNS.

In North America, WNS is known to affect 6 species of bats that use hibernation as their winter survival strategy: the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), the eastern small-footed bat (Myotis leibii), the little brown bat (M. lucifugus), the northern long-eared bat (M. septentrionalis), the tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus), and the Indiana bat (M. sodalis) (1,3,4). Since its detection in February 2006 in a popular tourist cave near Albany, New York, USA, WNS has spread >1,300 km into Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia in the United States and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada (1,3,5) in a pattern suggesting the spread of an infectious agent.

A recently discovered psychrophilic (cold-loving) fungus, Geomyces destructans (6), has consistently been isolated from bats that meet the pathologic criteria for WNS, including colonization of skin by fungal hyphae causing characteristic epidermal erosions and ulcers that can progress to invasion of underlying connective tissue (2,7). G. destructans is identified by its distinctive asymmetrically curved conidia and has a unique taxonomic position among other Geomyces spp. described to date (6). Its closest genetic relative is G. pannorum, a ubiquitous psychrophilic, keratinolytic fungus that has been isolated from a variety of sources and geographic regions, including soil and the fur of wild mammals in France (8), floors of trains and ferryboats in Italy (9), boreal forests in Canada (10), and environmental samples from Arctic regions (11,12). G. pannorum var. pannorum has been reported as an unusual dermatophyte infecting fingernails and superficial skin of humans who have a history of close contact with soil and dust (13,14). However, G. destructans differs from other common soil fungi of North America in its ability to invade the living tissues of hibernating bats.

After WNS was described in North America (1), reports dating back to the early 1980s (15) described repeated observations of white fungal growth on muzzles of hibernating bats in Germany. However, these bats lacked the characteristics of WNS such as associated deaths. Moreover, fungus was not identified. In response to WNS in North America, researchers in Europe initiated a surveillance effort during the winter of 2008–09 for WNS-like fungal infections among hibernating populations of bats in Europe. G. destructans in Europe was previously reported in 1 hibernating bat that was sampled in France during March 2009 (16).

In this report, we describe results of a more extensive effort by scientists from 4 countries in Europe (Germany, United Kingdom, Hungary, and Switzerland) to obtain and analyze samples from hibernating bats with white patches on their faces or wing membranes. Our objectives were to identify the fungus colonizing such affected hibernating bats in Europe and to clarify its geographic distribution over a broad area of Europe.

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Suggested Citation for this Article
Wibbelt G, Kurth A, Hellmann D, Weishaar M, Barlow A, Veith M, et al. White-nose syndrome fungus (Geomyces destructans) in bats, Europe. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2010 Aug [date cited].

http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/8/1237.htm

DOI: 10.3201/eid1608.100002