Second Washington bat tests positive for white-nose syndrome fungus

A second bat in Washington has tested positive for the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, which has devastated bat colonies in the eastern U.S. and Canada.

The fungus was found on a silver-haired bat from King County, but the bat did not show signs of having white-nose syndrome, such as visible fungal growth or lesions, according to state and federal wildlife officials. The finding was consistent with previous reports that silver-haired bats may be carriers of the disease, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.

The silver-haired bat had been collected for rabies screening and also was tested for the white-nose syndrome fungus after the disease was detected in another Washington bat earlier this year.

On March 11, hikers found a sick bat about 30 miles east of Seattle near North Bend and took it to the Progressive Animal Welfare Society. The bat, a western subspecies of little brown bat, died two days later. It had visible symptoms of a skin infection common in bats with white-nose syndrome.

Detection of the fungus in the central Cascades – about 1,300 miles from infected populations in eastern Nebraska and northern Minnesota – caught bat researchers by surprise. That led to stepped-up testing for the disease in Washington, which included monitoring of bat colonies and testing of bats previously submitted to the state Health Department for rabies testing. None of the live bats tested had the fungus.