Mysterious fatal bat disease poses threat to agriculture, scientists say

AMERICA’S bats are dying in their hundreds of thousands due to a mysterious illness called white-nose syndrome, and efforts to save them could prevent billions of dollars in agricultural losses, scientists say.

In a paper published in the journal Science, bat researchers estimated that a single colony of 150 brown bats in the US state of Indiana eats around 1.3 million pest insects a year, and that the value of such bats to agriculture may be around $22.9 billion (€16.26bn) a year.

They criticised a lack of funds and efforts to save the bats and to find out more about what is causing their widespread population decline. The current “wait-and-see” approach is unacceptable, they said.

“Bats are among the most overlooked, yet economically important, non-domesticated animals in North America, and their conservation is important for the integrity of ecosystems and in the best interest of both national and international economies,” the scientists, led by Justin Boyles of the University of Pretoria in South Africa, wrote in the journal.

“The life histories of these flying, nocturnal mammals — characterised by long generation times and low reproductive rates — mean that population recovery is unlikely for decades or even centuries, if at all.”

The deadly white-nose infection is spreading quickly across the northeastern United States and Canada, and a study published last year suggested the disease is likely to cause the regional extinction of the one species of bat known as little brown myotis bat.

The syndrome, linked to a fungus that spreads among bats as they hibernate, affects at least seven species, experts say. It was only identified in the US in 2006 in bats nesting in caves near Albany, New York, and since then more than a million of the flying mammals have died.

“This disease is burning through our bat populations like a five-alarm fire,” said Mollie Matteson, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity in Ohio.

In a telephone interview, Boyles said the researchers aim was to drive home the importance of protecting bats — animals he said were often undervalued by the public and policymakers.

“A lot of people say ‘why should we care about bats?,” he explained. “So our goal is to try and emphasise how important they are ecologically and economically,” he said.

The scientists said the rising number of wind turbines in the US and Europe were another major threat to bats.