Tag Archives: fungus

Not just bats and frogs: snake fungal disease hits U.S.

Not just bats and frogs: snake fungal disease hits U.S.
A fungal outbreak in the eastern  and Midwestern United States is infecting some populations of wild snakes. Snake  Fungal Disease (SFD), a fungal dermatitis consistently associated with the  fungus Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, is showing recent spikes in occurrence  according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s  National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) and other diagnostic laboratories.

So far, the diseased snakes submitted by Wildlife Monitors to the NWHC are  attributed to wild populations from nine states, including Florida,  Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, and  Wisconsin.

Northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) with crusty and thickened scales overlaying raised blisters as a result of a fungal skin infection, captured from island in western Lake Erie, Ohio, in August 2009 (case 22747). Photograph by D.E. Green, USGS National Wildlife Health Center.
Northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) with crusty and  thickened scales overlaying raised blisters as a result of a fungal skin  infection, captured from island in western Lake Erie, Ohio, in August 2009 (case  22747). Photograph by D.E. Green, USGS National Wildlife Health Center.

Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0906-andrus-snake-fungal-disease.html#07232xEutvi0HCH6.99

You can see the mongabay news as it is posted at http://news.mongabay.com/

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Devastating Bat-killing Disease Reaches Georgia

Earth First! Newswire

 Second State Announced in Two Dayswhitenose

By: The Center for Biological Diversity

A lethal bat disease sweeping across North America has been discovered for the first time in Georgia, state and federal officials announced today. The announcement comes one day after the disease was reported in South Carolina. White-nose syndrome, a fatal fungal disease in bats, has now spread to 22 states and 5 Canadian provinces over the past seven years. This most recent discovery of the disease was made at two caves in Dade County, Ga. — one in the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, operated by the National Park Service, and the other at Cloudland Canyon State Park. Last year the bat disease was documented on the Tennessee side of the same national military park.

“White-nose syndrome’s attack on North American bats is continuing unabated,” said Mollie Matteson, a bat specialist at the Center for Biological…

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