Connecticut Has Key Role In Search For Cause Of White-Nose Synd...

The rapid spread from the Northeast to the South of the deadly white-nose syndrome in bats is more than a crisis that once again puts Connecticut at the center of a major outbreak like Lyme disease or West Nile virus.

[Steve Rubell]

I used to have LOT'S of people when with white-nosed syndrome when I ran my club .... Studio 54 ..... EVERYBODY who was ANYBODY had white-nosed syndrme

[Gary]

I think you have fungus on your brain.

[CtTrapper]

Let's just hope the environmental committee doesn't screw this up too by injecting politics and special interest into what should be solely under the jurisdiction of qualified biologists at the DEP.

[h c ecco]

unfreeze DEP jobs before the bats, the bees, the birds and most of the fish are gone...research and conservation won't help after the extinction (which eventually will include the paving/polluting species, too).

[The Pooka]

h c ecco wrote:

unfreeze DEP jobs before the bats, the bees, the birds and most of the fish are gone...research and conservation won't help after the extinction (which eventually will include the paving/polluting species, too).

Well said, ecco./ Question for the day: doesn't a species which **consciously** brings about, or accelerates, its own extinction -- deserve it? Discuss. ;}

[J Hathaway]

Noting that they are looking at a European connection, I wonder if any of the science team has looked into artisinal cheesemaking as a source -- cheese caves are a hot topic now and European cheeses depend on unique cave microflora. European cheese caves have been housed animals and agricultural products for centuries -- ideal for the development of a pathogen. The NY/VT border area is full of artisinal cheesemakers. See: http://www.gourmet.com/travel/2008/10/vermont... and this: http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/01/2008-the-y... A wild thought.

[jayrehee]

J Hathaway wrote:

Noting that they are looking at a European connection, I wonder if any of the science team has looked into artisinal cheesemaking as a source -- cheese caves are a hot topic now and European cheeses depend on unique cave microflora. European cheese caves have been housed animals and agricultural products for centuries -- ideal for the development of a pathogen. The NY/VT border area is full of artisinal cheesemakers. See: http://www.gourmet.com/travel/2008/10/vermont... and this: http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/01/2008-the-y... A wild thought.

Is this in any way connected with the liver and onions flu of 2010? With little or no mayoniasse the course will be set round

[morisal]

Whitaker is on the right track, I think. I've read his work on chitinase (I study chitinases in insect-fungal interactions) and had suggested this as a hypothesis about a year ago to the lead on the Connecticut without knowing that Whitaker was involved. The symptoms make it a likely target and the fact that a fungus is growing on the bats is probably systematic; chitinases from their digestive tract are probably sufficient to break up the fungus and kill it in uninfected bats. Anyhow, good luck to all the researchers involved. I'm glad to know that the gut bacterium hypothesis is receiving sustained attention.

[Will Agate]

this was an excellent article that I am so pleased the Courant decided to run. It is great to see that old-fashioned journalism does still live in the likes of writers such as Rinker Buck. Keep up the great work in spite of our society's overall preference for the easy-to-read entertainment of today.