Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic.
PLoS One. 2010 Nov 5;5(11):e13853. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013853.
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.
白鼻综合征是一种与真菌 Geomyces destructans 相关的冬眠性食虫蝙蝠疾病。它于 2006 年首次出现在北美洲，自此已有超过一百万只蝙蝠死亡。在欧洲，G. destructans 于 2009 年在法国首次被发现。其在欧洲的分布、感染动态及其对冬眠蝙蝠的影响在很大程度上尚不清楚。
方法/主要发现：我们在 2008/2009 年和 2009/2010 年冬季对捷克共和国和斯洛伐克的冬眠洞穴进行了筛查，以确定真菌的存在。在 2009/2010 年冬季，我们在 98 个受调查地点中的 76 个发现了受感染的蝙蝠，其中大多数以前都是阴性的。自 1994 年以来，我们对超过 6000 只冬眠蝙蝠进行了拍照记录，自 1995 年以来就发现了有真菌生长的蝙蝠；然而，在 2007 年 M. myotis 中这种蝙蝠的发病率从 2%增加到 2010 年的 14%。显微镜检查、培养和分子遗传学评估证实了最近采样的真菌为 G. destructans，并且证明了其在研究区域的连续分布。在冬眠季节结束时，我们记录了受感染蝙蝠皮肤的病理变化，并从这些蝙蝠中分离出了真菌。我们没有记录到由真菌引起的大量死亡，并且在过去两年中受影响最严重的物种 M. myotis 的记录种群下降在种群趋势预测区间内。
结论/意义：G. destructans 在捷克共和国和斯洛伐克广泛存在，在最近几年蝙蝠中出现了疫病。迫切需要制定详细的泛欧监测计划来进一步发展这一情况。
