Fish & Wildlife Disease: White-Nose Syndrome
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By Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program
September 29, 2022
Since the winter of 2006-07, millions of North American bats have died from white-nose syndrome (WNS). As of September 2015, bats with WNS were confirmed in 26 states and five Canadian provinces.
White-nose syndrome gets its name from the white fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which infects the skin on the muzzle, ears, and wings of hibernating bats and was discovered by USGS scientists.
USGS scientists have developed novel tools and techniques for national WNS detection, surveillance (UV light) and research efforts. Our scientists are monitoring bat populations (NABat) and hibernating bat behavior in addition to assessing the impact of WNS on bat populations. USGS is now focusing on disease management strategies to reverse bat declines from WNS (oral vaccine, modification of bat hibernation sites, investigations of the bat skin microbiome).
Where is WNS now?
Where is WNS now?
View interactive and archived maps of white-nose syndrome occurrence by county/district.
New Simulated Treatment Model
New Simulated Treatment Model
We developed a model allowing for the application of treatment strategies to bat populations at risk of severe mortality from WNS. The model allows the bat population to exist within a network of hibernacula and updates survival, reproduction, movement, treatment applications, and treatment related disturbance annually.
Bat Disease Research
Bat Disease Research
Filter Total Items: 24
North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat)
North American bats face unprecedented threats including habitat loss and fragmentation, white-nose syndrome, wind energy development, and climate change. However, it is difficult to evaluate the impacts of these threats due to a lack of basic information about the distribution and abundance of bats across the continent. Although bat monitoring has long been conducted in individual areas and for...
A Rapid CRISPR-based Field Test for the Non-invasive Detection of the Fungal Causative Agent of White-nose Syndrome
White-nose syndrome has killed more than five million bats since its discovery in 2006. USGS is developing a non-invasive and user-friendly CRISPR white-nose syndrome biosensor to allow for quick detection of the pathogen that causes the disease.
White-nose syndrome vaccine update and research on host protection mechanisms
Sixteen years after Pd, the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats, was first recognized in New York, its range now extends to the Rocky Mountains, and it has been definitively detected in all but seven states (Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah). The National Wildlife Health Center and our partners continue to field test a WNS vaccine for wild bats and to research...
Field trials for testing of white-nose syndrome vaccine candidates
White-nose syndrome (WNS), caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), continues to decimate bat populations in North America, and efforts to develop treatment options have intensified. One potential method for controlling WNS is vaccination of bats with specific antigens to elicit a protective immune response.
Bat Research
White-nose syndrome (WNS) caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) has decimated hibernating bat populations across North America since it emerged 10 years ago in New York. As Pd has spread across North America, infection dynamics and mortality from WNS have varied among species and across sites. The mechanisms behind vulnerability of species across the current and expanding...
Integrating colony counts with NABat acoustic data to reveal the true impacts of White-Nose Syndrome on northern long-eared bats
Bat Research Research collaboration: Brian Reichert (FORT), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), Winifred Frick (Bat Conservation International), Tina Cheng (Bat Conservation International) The northern long-eared bat ( Myotis septentrionalis ) was listed as Threatened on the Endangered Species Act in 2014 due to rapid declines in numbers of observed hibernating bats at winter roosting sites after the...
A continental-scale study of acoustic phenology to improve population monitoring and inform management of hibernating bats
Bat Research Research collaboration: Winifred Frick (Bat Conservation International), Theodore Weller (U.S. Forest Service), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), Craig Willis (University of Winnipeg), and Brian Reichert (FORT) White-nose Syndrome (WNS) has caused severe declines in bat populations over the past 10 years and colony sizes at winter hibernacula have decreased on average by >90% for three...
Developing online integrated data visualization tools for WNS and NABat
Bat Research Research collaboration: Brian Reichert (FORT), Anne Ballmann (NWHC), Jeremy Coleman (USFWS), Paul Cryan (FORT), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), and Katherine Irvine (NOROCK) White-nose syndrome is caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), which has decimated hibernating bat populations across North America since it emerged 10 years ago in New York. While diagnostic...
Modeling the response of cave hibernating Myotis species to white-nose syndrome mitigation tactics
Bat Research Research collaboration: Robin Russell (NWHC), Tonie Rocke (NWHC), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), Evan Grant (PWRC) White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease devastating cave-hibernating bat species ( Myotis spp.) in the eastern United States. Several mitigation tactics have been proposed to alleviate the effects of white-nose syndrome on bats including probiotics and vaccination. Questions...
Quantifying vulnerability of bat species to White-nose Syndrome across North America
Bat Research Research collaboration: Winifred Frick (Bat Conservation International), Brian Reichert (FORT), Theodore Weller (US Forest Service), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC) and the North American Bat Colony Count Consortium We quantify vulnerability of bat species in North America to target and prioritize management actions toward species and habitats that are most at risk from impacts from White...
Vaccines
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) works on developing various disease management tools, including the development of vaccines. Our current work focuses on vaccines for sylvatic plague, white-nose syndrome, and rabies as disease control strategies.
White-Nose Syndrome Surveillance
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) assists State, Federal, and Tribal wildlife agencies nationwide with early detection of Pseudogymnoascus destructans ( Pd ), and addresses specific research priorities identified by partners in conjunction with the White-Nose Syndrome National Plan.
White-Nose Syndrome
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emergent disease of hibernating bats that has spread from the northeastern across United States at an alarming rate.
Bat Research in California
The primary goal of this bat research program is to develop projects that increase our understanding of basic ecology and natural history of western bat species, while simultaneously providing needed data to inform conservation measures and management decisions in the West. Dr. Brian Halstead, together with Gabriel Reyes, studies the habitat and resource selection, movement ecology, demography...
Population Demographic Models for the Conservation of Endangered Indiana Bats at Risk to White-Nose Syndrome
Bat Research Bats are nocturnal, flying mammals that eat insects or fruits, pollinate flowers, distribute seeds, and are important to many ecosystems. Across North America there are 45 species of bats, many of which are threatened or endangered. One species of federally endangered bat, the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), is a medium-sized, gray, black, or chestnut brown bat living primarily in...
Infection by White-nose Syndrome is likely to Extirpate the Endangered Indiana Bat over major portions of its current range
White-nose syndrome (WNS), a novel fungal pathogen of cave-hibernating bat species in east and central North America, is causing the most precipitous decline in bat populations ever reported. This disease causes mortality in at least 6 species of bats, including the endangered Indiana Bat (Myotis sodalis), with mortality rates in some hibernacula averaging 95%. Since the onset of this disease in...
Non-invasive Surveillance of Bat Hibernacula to Investigate Potential Behavioral Causes of Mortality Associated with White Nose Syndrome
White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a devastating disease that threatens the survival of hibernating bats in North America. Since first documented in the winter of 2005/2006, WNS has spread from a very small area of New York across at least two thousand kilometers and half or more of states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada.
Ecological Investigations of White-Nose Syndrome in Bats
White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a devastating disease that threatens the survival of hibernating bats in North America. Since first documented in the winter of 2005/2006, WNS has spread from a very small area of New York across at least two thousand kilometers in half or more of states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada. Over five million bats are estimated to have died during the past decade from...
External Microbiota of Bats as Potential Bio-control Against Wildlife Diseases
White-nose syndrome (WNS) and/or Pseudogymnoascus destructans (P.d.), the causal agent, has spread westward across 26 states and 5 provinces within the eastern United States and Canada, respectively, over a short period of time. Since its discovery there has been a search to stop the spread of this disease that has killed millions of hibernating bats in its wake. Recent collaborative work by FORT...
White-Nose Syndrome Threatens the Survival of Hibernating Bats in North America
During the winter of 2006–2007, an affliction of unknown origin dubbed “white-nose syndrome” (WNS) began devastating colonies of hibernating bats in a small area around Albany, New York. Colonies of hibernating bats were reduced 80–97 percent at the affected caves and mines that were surveyed. Since then, white-nose syndrome or its causative agent have consistently spread more than 2,000...
WNS Data Management Coordination
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease responsible for unprecedented mortality in hibernating bats in the northeastern U.S. This previously unrecognized disease has spread very rapidly since its discovery in January 2007 and poses a considerable threat to hibernating bats throughout North America.
Since the winter of 2006-07, millions of North American bats have died from white-nose syndrome (WNS). As of September 2015, bats with WNS were confirmed in 26 states and five Canadian provinces.
White-nose syndrome gets its name from the white fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which infects the skin on the muzzle, ears, and wings of hibernating bats and was discovered by USGS scientists.
USGS scientists have developed novel tools and techniques for national WNS detection, surveillance (UV light) and research efforts. Our scientists are monitoring bat populations (NABat) and hibernating bat behavior in addition to assessing the impact of WNS on bat populations. USGS is now focusing on disease management strategies to reverse bat declines from WNS (oral vaccine, modification of bat hibernation sites, investigations of the bat skin microbiome).
Where is WNS now?
Where is WNS now?
View interactive and archived maps of white-nose syndrome occurrence by county/district.
New Simulated Treatment Model
New Simulated Treatment Model
We developed a model allowing for the application of treatment strategies to bat populations at risk of severe mortality from WNS. The model allows the bat population to exist within a network of hibernacula and updates survival, reproduction, movement, treatment applications, and treatment related disturbance annually.
Bat Disease Research
Bat Disease Research
Filter Total Items: 24
North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat)
North American bats face unprecedented threats including habitat loss and fragmentation, white-nose syndrome, wind energy development, and climate change. However, it is difficult to evaluate the impacts of these threats due to a lack of basic information about the distribution and abundance of bats across the continent. Although bat monitoring has long been conducted in individual areas and for...
A Rapid CRISPR-based Field Test for the Non-invasive Detection of the Fungal Causative Agent of White-nose Syndrome
White-nose syndrome has killed more than five million bats since its discovery in 2006. USGS is developing a non-invasive and user-friendly CRISPR white-nose syndrome biosensor to allow for quick detection of the pathogen that causes the disease.
White-nose syndrome vaccine update and research on host protection mechanisms
Sixteen years after Pd, the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats, was first recognized in New York, its range now extends to the Rocky Mountains, and it has been definitively detected in all but seven states (Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah). The National Wildlife Health Center and our partners continue to field test a WNS vaccine for wild bats and to research...
Field trials for testing of white-nose syndrome vaccine candidates
White-nose syndrome (WNS), caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), continues to decimate bat populations in North America, and efforts to develop treatment options have intensified. One potential method for controlling WNS is vaccination of bats with specific antigens to elicit a protective immune response.
Bat Research
White-nose syndrome (WNS) caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) has decimated hibernating bat populations across North America since it emerged 10 years ago in New York. As Pd has spread across North America, infection dynamics and mortality from WNS have varied among species and across sites. The mechanisms behind vulnerability of species across the current and expanding...
Integrating colony counts with NABat acoustic data to reveal the true impacts of White-Nose Syndrome on northern long-eared bats
Bat Research Research collaboration: Brian Reichert (FORT), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), Winifred Frick (Bat Conservation International), Tina Cheng (Bat Conservation International) The northern long-eared bat ( Myotis septentrionalis ) was listed as Threatened on the Endangered Species Act in 2014 due to rapid declines in numbers of observed hibernating bats at winter roosting sites after the...
A continental-scale study of acoustic phenology to improve population monitoring and inform management of hibernating bats
Bat Research Research collaboration: Winifred Frick (Bat Conservation International), Theodore Weller (U.S. Forest Service), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), Craig Willis (University of Winnipeg), and Brian Reichert (FORT) White-nose Syndrome (WNS) has caused severe declines in bat populations over the past 10 years and colony sizes at winter hibernacula have decreased on average by >90% for three...
Developing online integrated data visualization tools for WNS and NABat
Bat Research Research collaboration: Brian Reichert (FORT), Anne Ballmann (NWHC), Jeremy Coleman (USFWS), Paul Cryan (FORT), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), and Katherine Irvine (NOROCK) White-nose syndrome is caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), which has decimated hibernating bat populations across North America since it emerged 10 years ago in New York. While diagnostic...
Modeling the response of cave hibernating Myotis species to white-nose syndrome mitigation tactics
Bat Research Research collaboration: Robin Russell (NWHC), Tonie Rocke (NWHC), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), Evan Grant (PWRC) White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease devastating cave-hibernating bat species ( Myotis spp.) in the eastern United States. Several mitigation tactics have been proposed to alleviate the effects of white-nose syndrome on bats including probiotics and vaccination. Questions...
Quantifying vulnerability of bat species to White-nose Syndrome across North America
Bat Research Research collaboration: Winifred Frick (Bat Conservation International), Brian Reichert (FORT), Theodore Weller (US Forest Service), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC) and the North American Bat Colony Count Consortium We quantify vulnerability of bat species in North America to target and prioritize management actions toward species and habitats that are most at risk from impacts from White...
Vaccines
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) works on developing various disease management tools, including the development of vaccines. Our current work focuses on vaccines for sylvatic plague, white-nose syndrome, and rabies as disease control strategies.
White-Nose Syndrome Surveillance
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) assists State, Federal, and Tribal wildlife agencies nationwide with early detection of Pseudogymnoascus destructans ( Pd ), and addresses specific research priorities identified by partners in conjunction with the White-Nose Syndrome National Plan.
White-Nose Syndrome
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emergent disease of hibernating bats that has spread from the northeastern across United States at an alarming rate.
Bat Research in California
The primary goal of this bat research program is to develop projects that increase our understanding of basic ecology and natural history of western bat species, while simultaneously providing needed data to inform conservation measures and management decisions in the West. Dr. Brian Halstead, together with Gabriel Reyes, studies the habitat and resource selection, movement ecology, demography...
Population Demographic Models for the Conservation of Endangered Indiana Bats at Risk to White-Nose Syndrome
Bat Research Bats are nocturnal, flying mammals that eat insects or fruits, pollinate flowers, distribute seeds, and are important to many ecosystems. Across North America there are 45 species of bats, many of which are threatened or endangered. One species of federally endangered bat, the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), is a medium-sized, gray, black, or chestnut brown bat living primarily in...
Infection by White-nose Syndrome is likely to Extirpate the Endangered Indiana Bat over major portions of its current range
White-nose syndrome (WNS), a novel fungal pathogen of cave-hibernating bat species in east and central North America, is causing the most precipitous decline in bat populations ever reported. This disease causes mortality in at least 6 species of bats, including the endangered Indiana Bat (Myotis sodalis), with mortality rates in some hibernacula averaging 95%. Since the onset of this disease in...
Non-invasive Surveillance of Bat Hibernacula to Investigate Potential Behavioral Causes of Mortality Associated with White Nose Syndrome
White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a devastating disease that threatens the survival of hibernating bats in North America. Since first documented in the winter of 2005/2006, WNS has spread from a very small area of New York across at least two thousand kilometers and half or more of states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada.
Ecological Investigations of White-Nose Syndrome in Bats
White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a devastating disease that threatens the survival of hibernating bats in North America. Since first documented in the winter of 2005/2006, WNS has spread from a very small area of New York across at least two thousand kilometers in half or more of states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada. Over five million bats are estimated to have died during the past decade from...
External Microbiota of Bats as Potential Bio-control Against Wildlife Diseases
White-nose syndrome (WNS) and/or Pseudogymnoascus destructans (P.d.), the causal agent, has spread westward across 26 states and 5 provinces within the eastern United States and Canada, respectively, over a short period of time. Since its discovery there has been a search to stop the spread of this disease that has killed millions of hibernating bats in its wake. Recent collaborative work by FORT...
White-Nose Syndrome Threatens the Survival of Hibernating Bats in North America
During the winter of 2006–2007, an affliction of unknown origin dubbed “white-nose syndrome” (WNS) began devastating colonies of hibernating bats in a small area around Albany, New York. Colonies of hibernating bats were reduced 80–97 percent at the affected caves and mines that were surveyed. Since then, white-nose syndrome or its causative agent have consistently spread more than 2,000...
WNS Data Management Coordination
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease responsible for unprecedented mortality in hibernating bats in the northeastern U.S. This previously unrecognized disease has spread very rapidly since its discovery in January 2007 and poses a considerable threat to hibernating bats throughout North America.