White-nose syndrome (WNS), the disease rampaging its way through the bats of North America, is caused by a fungus, scientists have confirmed.
Researchers from a number of US institutions infected healthy bats with the fungus Geomyces destructans, and found they did develop the disease.
The team also showed that the fungus can pass from one bat to another.
Writing in the journal Nature, they say WNS "has the potential to decimate North American bat populations".
So far, the disease has killed more than a million bats in the eastern US and Canada since it was first identified in New York state in 2006.
G. destructans is usually found on the animals' snouts, where it causes a characteristic white colouration and, more significantly, lesions in the skin.
Although the fungus has been suspected as the disease's primary cause, researchers have not been able to prove it definitively.
Animals sometimes contract fungal diseases when their immune systems have been compromised, perhaps by a different infection, and this has been seen as a possibility for WNS as well.
The research group, led by David Blehert from the National Wildlife Health Center at the US Geological Survey, appears to have proven the primary role of the fungus.
No 'magic bullet'
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15460894
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