Síndroma do Nariz Branco (III)

O WNS (White Nose Syndrome) continua a dar que falar. Depois da Bat Conservation Trust ter disponibilizado um guia para especialistas e espeleólogos, que dá indicações sobre os sinais a que se deve estar atento bem como as precauções a ter [Síndroma do Nariz Branco (II)], foi agora a EUROBATS que, na última reunião do Comité de Peritos, decidiu que estas recomendações deviam circular em todos os países que fazem parte desta organização.

Curiosamente esta decisão surge numa altura em que se especula sobre a possibilidade do WNS ter sido transportado por humanos da Europa para os Estados Unidos. Deixo um pequeno apontamento de um texto retirado de um fórum e que pode ser consultado na íntegra em Cavechat.org.

"Of course, the bats may just keep spreading WNS despite all our efforts, in which case we may see bat populations continuing to crash to a point where there aren't sufficient bats to host the fungus. At that time, the fungal population will also crash and a new equilibrium may come into being - one with much smaller bat populations - and a smaller fungal population.

Some have said this may be what has occurred in Europe. A genetically identical fungus has been isolated from several different sites in Europe. More tests are being done before it can be declared to be Geomyces destructans. Europe, however, has not seen large bat mortalities. In part, some speculate, that's because Europe does not have large bat colonies - no where near the huge colonies we see in American caves. Could WNS have wiped out large colonies in the past and Europe reached this new equilibrium? No one has found any record of such an occurrence yet. Also, with small bat colonies, it's possible that bats do die of WNS but simply aren't noticed. If a bat or two or three in a colony of 30 or 50 goes missing, but the rest remain, what can we tell? At this point, we know that bats with something that looks like WNS have been documented in Germany as far back as 1983."