A growing sense of urgency is prompting biologists to use experimental treatments to kill a likely cause of white-nose syndrome, an affliction that has reached crisis level for the state's cave-dwelling bats.
Mounting deaths have forced researchers to act, despite the fact that studies of the syndrome's cause and treatments are not complete, said DeeAnn Reeder, assistant professor of biology at Bucknell University.
"There's this pressure to do something, even if it's not the right thing," she said.
Reeder and Greg Turner, a biologist for Pennsylvania Game Commission, are treating bats in Bucks County with two anti-fungal agents, Terbinafine, found in athlete's foot treatments, and a natural compound administered in vapor form they declined to identify, referring to it only as "Agent C."
"It's fairly readily available," Turner said. "We don't want anyone to know what it is and self-treat."
http://republicanherald.com/news/bi...-in-batswhite-nose-syndrome-timeline-1.621192
Mounting deaths have forced researchers to act, despite the fact that studies of the syndrome's cause and treatments are not complete, said DeeAnn Reeder, assistant professor of biology at Bucknell University.
"There's this pressure to do something, even if it's not the right thing," she said.
Reeder and Greg Turner, a biologist for Pennsylvania Game Commission, are treating bats in Bucks County with two anti-fungal agents, Terbinafine, found in athlete's foot treatments, and a natural compound administered in vapor form they declined to identify, referring to it only as "Agent C."
"It's fairly readily available," Turner said. "We don't want anyone to know what it is and self-treat."
http://republicanherald.com/news/bi...-in-batswhite-nose-syndrome-timeline-1.621192
