Media Contact: Carolyn Rickard, NC Wildlife Resources Commission
RALEIGH, N.C. (Feb. 9, 2011) – White-nose syndrome, the disease
that has killed hundreds of thousands of bats in the Eastern
United States, has been discovered in a retired Avery County
mine and in a cave at Grandfather Mountain State Park, marking
the arrival of the disease in North Carolina. “White-nose
syndrome is confirmed in Virginia and Tennessee, so we expected
we would be one of the next states to see the disease,” said
Gabrielle Graeter, a biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources
Commission. “This discovery marks the arrival of one of the most
devastating threats to bat conservation in our time.” Although
scientists have yet to fully understand white-nose syndrome,
current knowledge indicates it’s likely caused by a newly
discovered fungus, Geomyces destructans, which often grows into
white tufts on the muzzles of infected bats, hence the disease’s
name. The first evidence of this fungus was collected in a New
York state cave in 2006.