Abstract
BackgroundSpatiotemporal distribution patterns are important infectious disease epidemiological characteristics that improve our understanding of wild animal population health. The skin infection caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans emerged as a panzootic disease in bats of the northern hemisphere. However, the infection status of bats over an extensive geographic area of the Russian Federation has remained understudied.ResultsWe examined bats at the geographic limits of bat hibernation in the Palearctic temperate zone and found bats with white-nose syndrome (WNS) on the European slopes of the Ural Mountains through the Western Siberian Plain, Central Siberia and on to the Far East. We identified the diagnostic symptoms of WNS based on histopathology in the Northern Ural region at 11° (about 1200 km) higher latitude than the current northern limit in the Nearctic. While body surface temperature differed between regions, bats at all study sites hibernated in very cold conditions averaging 3.6 °C. Each region also differed in P. destructans fungal load and the number of UV fluorescent skin lesions indicating skin damage intensity. Myotis bombinus, M. gracilis and Murina hilgendorfi were newly confirmed with histopathological symptoms of WNS. Prevalence of UV-documented WNS ranged between 16 and 76% in species of relevant sample size.ConclusionsTo conclude, the bat pathogen P. destructans is widely present in Russian hibernacula but infection remains at low intensity, despite the high exposure rate.
Highlights
Spatiotemporal distribution patterns are important infectious disease epidemiological characteristics that improve our understanding of wild animal population health
Geographic distribution of infectious diseases is modulated by climate-associated factors inducing changes in the host-pathogen system [2,3,4]
While bats have been recognised as important reservoir hosts for a great variety of emerging infectious agents [7], the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans [8, 9], causative agent of white-nose syndrome (WNS), is the first pathogen to threaten chiropteran biodiversity [10, 11] in the temperate zone
Summary
Spatiotemporal distribution patterns are important infectious disease epidemiological characteristics that improve our understanding of wild animal population health. The skin infection caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans emerged as a panzootic disease in bats of the northern hemisphere. Any infectious disease determinants associated with the host(s), the agent and the environment will vary geographically [1]. Geographic distribution of infectious diseases is modulated by climate-associated factors inducing changes in the host-pathogen system [2,3,4]. While bats have been recognised as important reservoir hosts for a great variety of emerging infectious agents [7], the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans [8, 9], causative agent of white-nose syndrome (WNS), is the first pathogen to threaten chiropteran biodiversity [10, 11] in the temperate zone. Breaking out as a point epidemic in eastern North America in 2006 [10], P. destructans infection has gradually been recognized as a panzootic in bats of the northern hemisphere [10, 15,16,17,18,19,20,21]
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