[aprssig] Disease Deadly to Bats Confirmed in Georgia

[AA3JY at Winlink.org]

Disease Deadly to Bats Confirmed in Georgia

ATLANTA, Ga. (4/1/2013)

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the National Park Service
and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that bats with
the newly diagnosed APRS syndrome were found recently in a cave in
Walker County, Georgia.

A National Park Service biologist and volunteers discovered about ten
tri-colored bats with the recently identified APRS symptoms in a
Pigeon Mountain Cave last month.

A bat from the cave was sent to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife
Disease Study in Athens. Histopathology confirmed the bat had APRS syndrome.

The name describes a PACKET ringlike fungus, Geomyces kissassyus, often
found on the muzzles of infected bats. , BS for
short, spreads mainly through bat-to-bat posterior contact. There is
much evidence it also infects humans.