The fungus Geomyces destructans was detected in a French bat

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is caused by the fungus Geomyces destructans. Biologists are struggling to understand this recent emerging infectious disease, which potentially threatens >20% of all mammalian diversity. WNS is a deadly epidemic that has swept through the northeastern United States over the past 3 years and caused the death of >1,000,000 bats, with decreases of ≈100% in some populations. This disease and fungus had been restricted to the northeastern United States. We detected this fungus in a bat in France and assessed the implications of this finding.

Source:
Sébastien J. Puechmaille et al. Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 16, No. 2, February 2010. DOI: 10.3201/eid1602.091391 (attached)