44
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Increasing Incidence of Geomyces destructans Fungus in Bats from the Czech Republic and Slovakia

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Background

          White-nose syndrome is a disease of hibernating insectivorous bats associated with the fungus Geomyces destructans. It first appeared in North America in 2006, where over a million bats died since then. In Europe, G. destructans was first identified in France in 2009. Its distribution, infection dynamics, and effects on hibernating bats in Europe are largely unknown.

          Methodology/Principal Findings

          We screened hibernacula in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for the presence of the fungus during the winter seasons of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. In winter 2009/2010, we found infected bats in 76 out of 98 surveyed sites, in which the majority had been previously negative. A photographic record of over 6000 hibernating bats, taken since 1994, revealed bats with fungal growths since 1995; however, the incidence of such bats increased in Myotis myotis from 2% in 2007 to 14% by 2010. Microscopic, cultivation and molecular genetic evaluations confirmed the identity of the recently sampled fungus as G. destructans, and demonstrated its continuous distribution in the studied area. At the end of the hibernation season we recorded pathologic changes in the skin of the affected bats, from which the fungus was isolated. We registered no mass mortality caused by the fungus, and the recorded population decline in the last two years of the most affected species, M. myotis, is within the population trend prediction interval.

          Conclusions/Significance

          G. destructans was found to be widespread in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with an epizootic incidence in bats during the most recent years. Further development of the situation urgently requires a detailed pan-European monitoring scheme.

          Related collections

          Most cited references7

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Influence of climate and reproductive timing on demography of little brown myotis Myotis lucifugus.

          1. Estimating variation in demographic rates, such as survival and fecundity, is important for testing life-history theory and identifying conservation and management goals. 2. We used 16 years (1993-2008) of mark-recapture data to estimate age-specific survival and breeding probabilities of the little brown myotis Myotis lucifugus LeConte in southern New Hampshire, USA. Using Kendall & Nichols' (1995) full-likelihood approach of the robust design to account for temporary emigration, we tested whether survival and breeding propensity is influenced by regional weather patterns and timing of reproduction. 3. Our results demonstrate that adult female survival of M. lucifugus ranged from 0.63 (95% CL = 0.56, 0.68) to 0.90 (95% CL = 0.77, 0.94), and was highest in wet years with high cumulative summer precipitation. First-year survival [range: 0.23 (95% CL = 0.14, 0.35) to 0.46 (95% CL = 0.34, 0.57)] was considerably lower than adult survival and depended on pup date of birth, such that young born earlier in the summer (c. late May) had a significantly higher probability of surviving their first year than young born later in the summer (c. mid-July). Similarly, the probability of young females returning to the maternity colony to breed in the summer following their birth year was higher for individuals born earlier in the summer [range: 0.23 (95% CL = 0.08, 0.50) to 0.53 (95% CL = 0.30, 0.75)]. 4. The positive influence of early parturition on 1st-year survival and breeding propensity demonstrates significant fitness benefits to reproductive timing in this temperate insectivorous bat. 5. Climatic factors can have important consequences for population dynamics of temperate bats, which may be negatively affected by summer drying patterns associated with global climate change. 6. Understanding long-term demographic trends will be important in the face of a novel disease phenomenon (White-Nose Syndrome) that is associated with massive mortalities in hibernating bat species, including M. lucifugus, in the northeastern United States.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: found
            Is Open Access

            Morphological and Molecular Characterizations of Psychrophilic Fungus Geomyces destructans from New York Bats with White Nose Syndrome (WNS)

            Background Massive die-offs of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) have been occurring since 2006 in hibernation sites around Albany, New York, and this problem has spread to other States in the Northeastern United States. White cottony fungal growth is seen on the snouts of affected animals, a prominent sign of White Nose Syndrome (WNS). A previous report described the involvement of the fungus Geomyces destructans in WNS, but an identical fungus was recently isolated in France from a bat that was evidently healthy. The fungus has been recovered sparsely despite plentiful availability of afflicted animals. Methodology/Principal Findings We have investigated 100 bat and environmental samples from eight affected sites in 2008. Our findings provide strong evidence for an etiologic role of G. destructans in bat WNS. (i) Direct smears from bat snouts, Periodic Acid Schiff-stained tissue sections from infected tissues, and scanning electron micrographs of bat tissues all showed fungal structures similar to those of G. destructans. (ii) G. destructans DNA was directly amplified from infected bat tissues, (iii) Isolations of G. destructans in cultures from infected bat tissues showed 100% DNA match with the fungus present in positive tissue samples. (iv) RAPD patterns for all G. destructans cultures isolated from two sites were indistinguishable. (v) The fungal isolates showed psychrophilic growth. (vi) We identified in vitro proteolytic activities suggestive of known fungal pathogenic traits in G. destructans. Conclusions/Significance Further studies are needed to understand whether G. destructans WNS is a symptom or a trigger for bat mass mortality. The availability of well-characterized G. destructans strains should promote an understanding of bat–fungus relationships, and should aid in the screening of biological and chemical control agents.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Rapid polymerase chain reaction diagnosis of white-nose syndrome in bats.

              A newly developed polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method to rapidly and specifically detect Geomyces destructans on the wings of infected bats from small quantities (1-2 mg) of tissue is described in the current study (methods for culturing and isolating G. destructans from bat skin are also described). The lower limits of detection for PCR were 5 fg of purified fungal DNA or 100 conidia per 2 mg of wing tissue. By using histology as the standard, the PCR had a diagnostic specificity of 100% and a diagnostic sensitivity of 96%, whereas the diagnostic sensitivity of culture techniques was only 54%. The accuracy and fast turnaround time of PCR provides field biologists with valuable information on infection status more rapidly than traditional methods, and the small amount of tissue required for the test would allow diagnosis of white-nose syndrome in live animals.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                1932-6203
                2010
                5 November 2010
                : 5
                : 11
                : e13853
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic
                [2 ]Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
                [3 ]Department of Biology and Ecology, Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
                [4 ]Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
                [5 ]Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic, Mariánské Lázně, Czech Republic
                [6 ]Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
                [7 ]Department of Forest Protection and Game Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Praha, Czech Republic
                [8 ]Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Praha, Czech Republic
                [9 ]Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic, Praha, Czech Republic
                [10 ]Sametová 721/18, Liberec, Czech Republic
                [11 ]Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Praha, Czech Republic
                [12 ]University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Košice, Slovakia
                [13 ]Department of Landscape Ecology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
                [14 ]Miniopterus - Principal Organization of the Slovak Union for Nature and Landscape Conservators, Bratislava, Slovakia
                [15 ]Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
                [16 ]Agency of Nature Conservation and Landsape Protection of the Czech Republic, Olomouc, Czech Republic
                [17 ]Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
                [18 ]Institute of Biology and Ecology, P. J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia
                [19 ]ZO ČSS 7-01 ORCUS Bohumín, Czech Speleological Society, Bohumín, Czech Republic
                University of Sydney, Australia
                Author notes

                Conceived and designed the experiments: NM J. Zima IH. Performed the experiments: NM P. Blažková TB LF ZH MK ĹK AK. Analyzed the data: NM TB JČ AK OM ET MU IH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: NM PB TB PB JČ LF JG VH DH HJ BL RL RKL JM ZŘ JŠ PT MU JW DW JZ JZ IH. Wrote the paper: NM JG AK OM ET IH.

                Article
                10-PONE-RA-20246R3
                10.1371/journal.pone.0013853
                2974652
                21079781
                24a175d7-e811-42a5-8d7e-a7c974d76464
                Martínková et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
                History
                : 24 June 2010
                : 17 October 2010
                Page count
                Pages: 7
                Categories
                Research Article
                Ecology/Evolutionary Ecology
                Evolutionary Biology/Evolutionary Ecology
                Infectious Diseases/Fungal Infections

                Uncategorized
                Uncategorized

                Comments

                Comment on this article