White-nose syndrome has devastated North American bat populations, causing one of the fastest wildlife population crashes in recorded history and creating urgent welfare needs.
White-nose syndrome causes a particularly distressing form of death for affected bats. The fungal infection disrupts the skin of hibernating bats, causing irritation that triggers premature arousal from torpor. Bats that wake during winter have insufficient fat reserves to survive until insect prey are available, and fly about in cold conditions burning their last energy before dying of starvation. The welfare suffering of billions of individual bats over two decades of the epidemic is enormous. Research into probiotic treatments, volatile antifungals, and immune priming that can be applied at hibernation sites represents the most promising welfare and conservation intervention. Protecting unaffected caves from human introduction of the fungus through strict decontamination protocols is the primary preventive action.