A deadly white-nose fungus has killed some 6 million bats in the
past 5 years across the USA and Canada, and the trend looks set
to rise. The US Fish and Wildlife Service have announced that
there is a growing trend in number of bat deaths across America.
According to scientific estimates, around 6 million bats have
been killed by a contagious fungus. The Huffington Post, picking
up on January's announcement about a rise in bat deaths, reports
data which suggest that the fungus has a mortality rate of 100%.
Six different species of bat have been affected, with the brown
bat (Myotis lucifugus) hit hardest in recording the largest
number of death. In an earlier statement the US agency describes
the bat deaths as "the worst wildlife health crisis in memory".
The cause of the bat deaths is a type of fungus which grows as a
white substance on the nose of bats and quickly kills them
(hence the common name 'white-nose fungus'). As yet there is no
known cause of the pathogen. To date the pathogen has been
detected in