Tomsk and Czech scientists look for the reasons of mass death of bats

TOMSK, May 10 – RIA Tomsk. Biologists of Tomsk State University (TSU) as a part of the international research group study the ways of spreading the fungus of the "white nose" which leads to death of bats in some countries of the world, the press service of the university said on Wednesday.

It is specified that the "white nose" syndrome caused by a fungus of the Geomyces genus which spores form lesions and a white coating on a muzzle and other parts of a body of bats. The causative agent is activated during hibernation. Breeding, it exhausts an animal and leads to its death. In the USA and Canada about six million bats died out. The individuals infected with this fungus are also found in Europe and Russia.

"Because of the situation in the US and Canada, the study of the "white nose" syndrome is the priority scientific direction.The researchers (from Russia and the Czech Republic) are studying the ways of spreading the fungus and the conditions of its development in order to prevent the epidemic in Europe", – is said in the report.

It is noted that in April TSU scientists and their colleagues from Urals State Medical University, Czech Academy of Sciences and University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno (Brno, Czech Republic) visited caves in the Sverdlovsk region, where in 2014 for the first time in Russia infected individuals were found, and put forward a hypothesis that the fungus spreader can be bloodsucking flies, but not tourists, bringing it on the sole, as it was previously thought.

It is reported that to test the hypothesis, scientists made a gathering of parasites in caves, collected samples of soil and walls. In the near future they will extract the fungal DNA for further study. Next year, biologists plan to explore the cave Divya in the Perm region, where the northernmost colony of bats lives.

It is added that in Russia there are about 40 species of bats, most of which are listed in the Red Book. Bats play an important role in agriculture, as they feed on pests. Because of the epidemic of the "white nose" syndrome in North America, American farmers lose about $ 3.7 billion annually.