- Hello Jeff...
-
- This is a catastrophe. It is highly likely that the
Mexican Free Tails died of White Nose Syndrome. As mentioned below, it
is highly unlikely that 70 bats would die from Rabies simultaneously.
-
- IF it is found that Rabies was the cause, then, I suspect
you may be hearing about the Rabies mutation and change in the virus that
I have beenpredicting. Hope not, but White Nose Syndrome would be as equally
- a catastrophe.
-
- Not good, a terrible, terrible blow. If WNS, then I
would predict that White Nose Syndrome will spread to
-
- California and all along the Pacific Coast within a year.
-
-
- Patty
-
-
- Date: 28 Dec 2010
- Source: Arizona Daily Star
- http://azstarnet.com/news/local/article_3b2ffd36-a070-545c-a2a2-87078070eceb.html
-
- Bat Die-Off Here A Mystery
-
- Almost 70 bats were found dead Monday morning along an
east-side walking path -- a mystery that has Arizona Game and Fish officials
searching for answers. One possibility: unseasonably warm Tucson, Arizona,
temperatures.
-
- "The whole situation is somewhat of a mystery in
part because the bats are Mexican free-tailed and should have been long
gone by now," said Mark Hart, a spokesman for the Arizona Game and
Fish Department. "They should have migrated to Mexico 2 months ago.
What they were doing there was unclear. Temperatures have been a little
warmer. They may have overstayed their visit."
-
- Early Monday [27 Dec 2010] morning, a local resident
was walking his border collie [dog] along the path that runs under a bridge
on East Speedway where the road crosses the Pantano Wash when he discovered
dozens of bat carcasses strewn across the walking path. "I hike and
bike a lot and go under a lot of bridges, and I've never seen anything
like it," the resident said.
-
- Of the bats found on the ground, 7 were alive. All of
the dead bats and 3 live ones were sent to the Arizona Department of Health
Services laboratory in Phoenix for rabies testing. 4 remaining live bats
were sent to a U.S. Geological Survey laboratory, where they will be tested
for white-nose syndrome, a fungal infection 1st documented in upstate New
York in 2006. The syndrome has killed millions of bats in the East and
has spread as far west as Oklahoma. The infection does not affect humans,
Hart said.
-
- Investigators could find no evidence of foul play in
the death of the bats. Game and Fish officials used metal detectors to
look for spent ammunition, but they found no sign that the bats had been
shot. It's unlikely that the bats were sickened by chemical perhaps used
in surfacing or de-icing the bridge, Hart said. And the chances are equally
remote that almost 70 bats would simultaneously die of rabies.
-
- The more likely hypothesis is that the bats died from
the cold after failing to migrate south to Central America and Mexico for
the winter. Hart said bats are still roosting under the bridge, and he
has a warning for recreationists who may find one of the mammals on the
ground:
-
- "Don't handle or come near a bat that appears to
be either dead or injured," he said. "That would hold true of
a lot of different species of wildlife, but especially bats, because they
do carry rabies."
-
- About the species
- -----------------
-
- Mexican free-tailed bats (_Tadarida brasiliensis_) like
the ones found under the Pantano Wash bridge, are found in the western
United States, south through Mexico, Central America and into northern
South America. They are medium-size bats, weighing between 0.4 and 0.5
ounces, with a wingspan between 12 and 14 inches. Their fur is reddish
to dark brown or gray in color. They have broad, black, forward-pointing
ears and wrinkled lips. Their tails extend more than a third beyond the
tail membranes; most other bats have tails that are completely enclosed
within the tail membranes. Their wings are long and narrow.
-
- Mexican free-tailed bats prefer to roost in caves but
will also inhabit attics, bridges and abandoned buildings. They choose
roosts near water because it attracts the insects they eat. Females produce
a single baby each summer, and all of the babies roost in a "nursery"
of sorts, in the highest and warmest reaches of the cave or other roost
site.
-
- Byline Kimberly Matas
-
- kmatas@azstarnet.com
-
- --
- Communicated by:
- ProMED-mail
- promed@promedmail.org
-
- [Free-tailed bat is so named because it possesses a tail
free and
- protruding beyond the uropatagium (hind membrane). The
Mexican Free
- Tail bat is also known (perhaps more correctly) as the
Brazilian Free
- Tail bat.
-
- Photos may be found at:
- http://en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/84/Txbats2lg.jpg
-
- Let's hope that some of the bat bodies were sent to a
diagnostic
- laboratory for a necropsy and perhaps some testing. -
Mod.TG]
-
- The interactive HealthMap/ProMED map for Arizona is available
at:
- http://healthmap.org/r/007G -CopyEd.EJP]
-
- ......sb/tg/ejp/jw
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