White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease that has killed millions of bats in North America since 2006. The disease causes profound suffering through disrupted hibernation and starvation during winter.
White-nose syndrome causes prolonged suffering through a mechanism that is particularly cruel in its interaction with bat physiology. The fungus irritates the skin during hibernation, repeatedly waking bats that should remain torpid and conserving energy. Each arousal burns fat that cannot be replaced in winter. Bats that exhaust their reserves face starvation — a slow death from energy depletion while surrounded by inescapable cold. The welfare implications of this disease for millions of individual bats are profound and largely invisible because they occur underground in dark caves during winter. Supporting research into treatments and protectants, and protecting remaining healthy hibernacula from human disturbance, directly reduces the welfare burden of this devastating disease.