Wisconsin’s first evidence of the bat disease white nose syndrome was restricted to a single site, the DNR confirms.
The state agency has finished testing samples taken earlier this year from caves where bats hibernate.
The Grant County location that tested positive for white nose syndrome was the only one that did.
As DNR Natural Heritage Conservation Director Erin Crain explains…the agency prioritizes testing samples where white nose is suspected.
“So for example if you go into a cave and you see visual signs of WNS – the samples that are taken at that cave get bumped up to the top of the line. So the fact that we had samples that were put at the back of the line were actually a good thing, because there weren’t visual signs so they weren’t a higher priority.”
White nose syndrome has killed millions of bats in the U.S. and Canada. It causes bats to wake up early from hibernation and use up essential energy stores. The disease was found for the first time this year in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Crain says its spread throughout Wisconsin is likely, but the DNR has been doing everything it can to buy time.
“There’s a ton of white nose syndrome research going on, and we want to keep it as contained as possible while that research is happening, in the event that there’s some sort of breakthrough.”
Crain says the finding of white nose will impact the way the DNR does its bat surveys, and decontamination measures at public caves will remain in place.
