Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany.
Emerg Infect Dis. 2010 Aug;16(8):1237-43. doi: 10.3201/eid1608.100002.
White-nose syndrome is an emerging disease in North America that has caused substantial declines in hibernating bats. A recently identified fungus (Geomyces destructans) causes skin lesions that are characteristic of this disease. Typical signs of this infection were not observed in bats in North America before white-nose syndrome was detected. However, unconfirmed reports from Europe indicated white fungal growth on hibernating bats without associated deaths. To investigate these differences, hibernating bats were sampled in Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary to determine whether G. destructans is present in Europe. Microscopic observations, fungal culture, and genetic analyses of 43 samples from 23 bats indicated that 21 bats of 5 species in 3 countries were colonized by G. destructans. We hypothesize that G. destructans is present throughout Europe and that bats in Europe may be more immunologically or behaviorally resistant to G. destructans than their congeners in North America because they potentially coevolved with the fungus.
白鼻综合征是一种在北美洲新出现的疾病，已导致大量冬眠蝙蝠数量减少。一种最近被发现的真菌（Geomyces destructans）会导致这种疾病的典型皮肤损伤。在白鼻综合征被发现之前，北美的蝙蝠并没有出现这种感染的典型迹象。然而，来自欧洲的未经证实的报告表明，在没有相关死亡的情况下，冬眠的蝙蝠身上有白色的真菌生长。为了研究这些差异，在德国、瑞士和匈牙利对冬眠的蝙蝠进行了采样，以确定欧洲是否存在 G. destructans。对来自 3 个国家的 5 种 23 只蝙蝠的 43 个样本进行的显微镜观察、真菌培养和基因分析表明，有 21 只蝙蝠被 G. destructans 定植。我们假设 G. destructans 存在于整个欧洲，并且欧洲的蝙蝠可能比北美的同类对 G. destructans 具有更强的免疫或行为抗性，因为它们可能与这种真菌共同进化。
