The Austin Bat Bridge on Congress Avenue in Texas’ capital city is known for the bats that are so often “hanging out” underneath it. Nearby, at the University of Texas, bats are also common, which could be part of why a group of its industrious students is intent on saving the bat population from the spread of a disease that could kill them.
The students’ efforts are part of an international biology competition called iGEM, which revolves around developing creative solutions to problems that would benefit the world. The problem they intend to help solve is White Nose Syndrome.
Considered one of the worst wildlife diseases in modern history, White Nose Syndrome has caused the death of more than 1 million bats, eliminating 90% to 100% of the bat population in some areas.
“We are using an organism called ADP1 to detect the environmental DNA left behind by White Nose Syndrome,” Keaton Brown, senior and biochemistry major at the University of Texas, told NBC DFW. Through their work, the students are trying to give bat conservationists another tool to use in monitoring the spread of White Nose Syndrome.
The spread of the disease occurs via bat-to-bat contact through the transmission of a fungus that infects the bare skin of hibernating bats. The fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, resembles a white fuzz, hence its name.
This fungus causes bats in an inactive state to become unusually active, burning up fats in the body needed to survive the winter. Bats infected by the disease may even fly during the daytime in the winter, almost unheard of for the nocturnal creatures.
White Nose Syndrome was first discovered in the United States in Albany, New York, in 2007, but experts believe it has been around since at least as early as 2006. It was first detected in Texas in 2020, in the Hill Country.
The disease has spread throughout the United States in places like Nevada, New Mexico, and across the east coast, as well as in Canada. Bats in Europe and Asia do not appear to get as sick with White Nose Syndrome as bats in North America do.
There is no cure, although scientists are in the process of attempting to develop a vaccine for the disease that could be administered to bats.
