Grieneisen Laura E, Brownlee-Bouboulis Sarah A, Johnson Joseph S, Reeder DeeAnn M
Department of Biology , Bucknell University , Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA.
R Soc Open Sci. 2015 Feb 4;2(2):140470. doi: 10.1098/rsos.140470. eCollection 2015 Feb.
White-nose syndrome (WNS), an emerging infectious disease caused by the novel fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, has devastated North American bat populations since its discovery in 2006. The little brown myotis, Myotis lucifugus, has been especially affected. The goal of this 2-year captive study was to determine the impact of hibernacula temperature and sex on WNS survivorship in little brown myotis that displayed visible fungal infection when collected from affected hibernacula. In study 1, we found that WNS-affected male bats had increased survival over females and that bats housed at a colder temperature survived longer than those housed at warmer temperatures. In study 2, we found that WNS-affected bats housed at a colder temperature fared worse than unaffected bats. Our results demonstrate that WNS mortality varies among individuals, and that colder hibernacula are more favourable for survival. They also suggest that female bats may be more negatively affected by WNS than male bats, which has important implications for the long-term survival of the little brown myotis in eastern North America.
白鼻综合征（WNS）是一种由新型真菌毁灭柱孢引起的新发传染病，自2006年被发现以来，已对北美蝙蝠种群造成了毁灭性打击。小棕蝠（Myotis lucifugus）受到的影响尤为严重。这项为期两年的圈养研究的目的是确定冬眠温度和性别对小棕蝠白鼻综合征存活率的影响，这些小棕蝠是从受影响的冬眠地采集的，采集时已出现明显的真菌感染。在研究1中，我们发现受白鼻综合征影响的雄性蝙蝠比雌性蝙蝠存活率更高，且处于较低温度环境中的蝙蝠比处于较高温度环境中的蝙蝠存活时间更长。在研究2中，我们发现处于较低温度环境中的受白鼻综合征影响的蝙蝠比未受影响的蝙蝠情况更糟。我们的研究结果表明，白鼻综合征导致的死亡率存在个体差异，较冷的冬眠地更有利于蝙蝠存活。研究结果还表明，雌性蝙蝠可能比雄性蝙蝠更容易受到白鼻综合征的负面影响，这对北美东部小棕蝠的长期生存具有重要意义。
