USGS Scientists Receive Award for Pioneering Work on White-Nose Syndrome in Bats
Dr. Carol U. Meteyer Examining a Bat
Science Center Objects
Dr. Carol U. Meteyer and Dr. David S. Blehert received the Tom Thorne and Beth Williams Memorial Award from the Wildlife Disease Association and the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians for their pioneering work on white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats.
WNS, a disease caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, has killed millions of bats in North America since it was first diagnosed in New York in 2007. Pseudogymnoascus destructans shows up as a white fungus that infects skin of the muzzle, ears, and wings of hibernating bats—hence the name white-nose syndrome. Although WNS does not pose a direct threat to people, the disease decimates bats, which serve critical ecological functions by consuming insect pests of crops and forests. Without bats it is estimated that agricultural losses in North America alone would exceed $3 billion each year.
Tom Thorne and Beth Williams Memorial Award
The Tom Thorne and Beth Williams Memorial Award is presented by the Wildlife Disease Association and American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians to scientists "in acknowledgement of either an exemplary contribution or achievement combining wildlife disease research with wildlife management policy implementation or elucidating particularly significant problems in wildlife health."
Dr. David S. Blehert working in a laboratory
(Credit: Cathy Acker, contact Gail Moede Rogall. Public domain.)
Dr. Meteyer and Dr. Blehert received the award for their seminal scientific research, publications, and expert consultation that have been instrumental in the wildlife health community's understanding of WNS. Their research confirmed the cause of WNS, defined the pathologic criteria for diagnosing WNS, provided new information on the biology of Pseudogymnoascus destructans, and provided a nonlethal ultraviolet (UV) light screening tool for WNS. Dr. Blehert's and Dr. Meteyer's scientific discoveries and publications have laid the groundwork for all subsequent and future studies on WNS.
Dr. Meteyer has investigated the causes of wildlife mortality in more than 6,000 animals and provided initial detections and pathophysiology of several wildlife diseases in the United States and overseas, including identification of the veterinary drug, diclofenac, as the cause of the population crash of Gyps vultures in Pakistan. She has also championed efforts to address effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals on fish and wildlife of the Chesapeake Bay.
Dr. Blehert manages the Wildlife Disease Diagnostic Laboratories Branch at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC). As Branch Chief, he oversees investigations to determine cause of death for wildlife mortality events across the U.S. and to detect, discover and characterize emerging pathogens. His laboratories also conduct surveillance for animal diseases of high consequence. Through this work, Dr. Blehert and the NWHC support efforts to mitigate the impacts of infectious disease to wildlife, domestic animals, and humans.
More Information
- Tom Thorne and Beth Williams Memorial Award, Wildlife Disease Association
- What is White-Nose Syndrome?, USGS Frequently Asked Questions
- Bat White-Nose Syndrome: There is a New Fungus Among Us, USGS Video
- White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) Information, USGS National Wildlife Health Center
- White-Nose Syndrome Threatens the Survival of Hibernating Bats in North America, USGS Fort Collins Science Center
- White-Nose Syndrome Photo Gallery, USGS National Wildlife Health Center
- Trick or Treat? The Frightening Threats to Bats, USGS News
- Black-Light Detects White-Nose Syndrome in Bats, USGS Contaminant Biology Program Science Feature
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Date published: May 16, 2017Status: CompletedPopulation Demographic Models for the Conservation of Endangered Indiana Bats at Risk to White-Nose Syndrome
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....
Contacts: Wayne E Thogmartin, Ph.D. -
Date published: May 16, 2017Status: ActiveInfection 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...
Contacts: Wayne E Thogmartin, Ph.D. -
Date published: October 14, 2016Status: ActiveEcological 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...
Contacts: Paul Cryan, Ph.D., Lance Everette -
Date published: September 13, 2016Status: ActiveWhite-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...
Contacts: Paul Cryan, Ph.D. -
Date published: July 1, 2016Status: Active
Surveillance for the Presence of White-Nose Syndrome in the Bat Community at El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico
In 1999 and 2000, FORT conducted a survey of bats at El Malpais National Monument and adjacent lands. During this study, several species of bats were documented, including some that are known to use caves or lava-tube formations as roosts. In the winter of 2006–2007, the fungus-caused disease known as “white-nose syndrome” (WNS) began devastating populations of hibernating bat species that use...
Contacts: Ernie Valdez, Ph.D. -
White-Nose Syndrome
Bats have a tremendous economic value to agriculture: bats provide over $3 billion in pest control, seed dispersal, and pollination. 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 initiates a cascade of physiologic disturbances in the hibernating bat host
Background The physiological effects of white-nose syndrome (WNS) in hibernating bats and ultimate causes of mortality from infection with Pseudogymnoascus (formerly Geomyces) destructans are not fully understood. Increased frequency of arousal from torpor described among hibernating bats with late-stage WNS is thought to...
Verant, Michelle L.; Meteyer, Carol U.; Speakman, John R.; Cryan, Paul M.; Lorch, Jeffrey M.; Blehert, David S. Nonlethal screening of bat-wing skin with the use of ultraviolet fluorescence to detect lesions indicative of white-nose syndrome
Definitive diagnosis of the bat disease white-nose syndrome (WNS) requires histologic analysis to identify the cutaneous erosions caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus [formerly Geomyces] destructans (Pd). Gross visual inspection does not distinguish bats with or without WNS, and no nonlethal, on-site, preliminary screening methods are...
Turner, Gregory G.; Meteyer, Carol U.; Barton, Hazel; Gumbs, John F.; Reeder, DeeAnn M.; Overton, Barrie; Bandouchova, Hana; Bartonička, Tomáš; Martínková, Natália; Pikula, Jiri; Zukal, Jan; Blehert, David S. Pathology in euthermic bats with white nose syndrome suggests a natural manifestation of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome
White nose syndrome, caused by Geomyces destructans, has killed more than 5 million cave hibernating bats in eastern North America. During hibernation, the lack of inflammatory cell recruitment at the site of fungal infection and erosion is consistent with a temperature-induced inhibition of immune cell trafficking. This immune suppression allows...
Meteyer, Carol U.; Barber, Daniel; Mandl, Judith N. Inoculation of bats with European Geomyces destructans supports the novel pathogen hypothesis for the origin of white-nose syndrome
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging disease of hibernating bats associated with cutaneous infection by the fungus Geomyces destructans (Gd), and responsible for devastating declines of bat populations in eastern North America. Affected bats appear emaciated and one hypothesis is that they spend too much time out of torpor during...
Warnecke, Lisa; Turner, James M.; Bollinger, Trent K.; Lorch, Jeffrey M.; Misra, Vikram; Cryan, Paul M.; Wibbelt, Gudrun; Blehert, David S.; Willis, Craig K.R. Experimental infection of bats with Geomyces destructans causes white-nose syndrome
White-nose syndrome (WNS) has caused recent catastrophic declines among multiple species of bats in eastern North America. The disease's name derives from a visually apparent white growth of the newly discovered fungus Geomyces destructans on the skin (including the muzzle) of hibernating bats. Colonization of skin by this fungus is associated...
Lorch, J.M.; Meteyer, C.U.; Behr, M.J.; Boyles, J.G.; Cryan, P.M.; Hicks, A.C.; Ballmann, A.E.; Coleman, J.T.H.; Redell, D.N.; Reeder, D.M.; Blehert, D.S. Bat white-nose syndrome: An emerging fungal pathogen?
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a condition associated with an unprecedented bat mortality event in the northeastern United States. Since the winter of 2006*2007, bat declines exceeding 75% have been observed at surveyed hibernacula. Affected bats often present with visually striking white fungal growth on their muzzles, ears, and/or wing membranes....
Blehert, D.S.; Hicks, A.C.; Behr, M.; Meteyer, C.U.; Berlowski-Zier, B. M.; Buckles, E.L.; Coleman, J.T.H.; Darling, S.R.; Gargas, A.; Niver, R.; Okoniewski, J.C.; Rudd, R.J.; Stone, W.B. Geomyces destructans sp. nov. associated with bat white-nose syndrome
We describe and illustrate the new species Geomyces destructans. Bats infected with this fungus present with powdery conidia and hyphae on their muzzles, wing membranes, and/or pinnae, leading to description of the accompanying disease as white-nose syndrome, a cause of widespread mortality among hibernating bats in the northeastern US. Based...
Gargas, Andrea; Trest, M.T.; Christensen, M.; Volk, T.J.; Blehert, David S. Histopathologic criteria to confirm white-nose syndrome in bats
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a cutaneous fungal disease of hibernating bats associated with a novel Geomyces sp. fungus. Currently, confirmation of WNS requires histopathologic examination. Invasion of living tissue distinguishes this fungal infection from those caused by conventional transmissible dermatophytes. Although fungal hyphae penetrate...
Meteyer, Carol U.; Buckles, Elizabeth L.; Blehert, David S.; Hicks, Alan C.; Green, David E.; Shearn-Bochsler, Valerie I.; Thomas, Nancy J.; Gargas, Andrea; Behr, Melissa