Idaho monitoring deadly disease on bats

A disease that first started in 2006 in New York, has started to make its way across the country for bats. The disease is called the White Nose Syndrome (WNS).

It has killed more than 6 million bats in the Northeast and Canada. In some sites, 90-100 percent of bats have died in hibernation.

The disease first starts as a white, powdery formation around a bat’s nose. Legions and spores soon form thereafter, eventually killing the bat. It’s a fungus infection that has spread from bat to bat in many caves.

Scientists have found it difficult to understand why one cave may be infected, but another may not be in one certain area.

Pocatello’s Fish and Game has learned the bat disease has been as close as Washington. Jennifer Jackson of Fish and Game says they are starting to take swabs of bats in nearby caves. She says they’re monitoring local bats to make sure none have caught the deadly disease.

Biologists say a person’s body heat is enough to wake a bat, considering they’re light hibernators. Hikers and campers are advised not to disturb bats inside caves while they are in hibernation. And especially, while this disease is continuing to grow nationally.