BMN October Meeting: “Yogurt for Bats? Fighting a Fatal Fungus with Good Bacteria”
BMN CLUB MEETING (held via Zoom): “Yogurt for Bats? Fighting a Fatal Fungus with Good Bacteria” presented by Maleen Mund
Tuesday October 14, 7:30pm – 9pm
At the Tuesday October 14th meeting – held via Zoom – guest speaker Maleen Mund will tell us about research conducted locally to try to combat the fungus that has wiped out millions of bats across North America.
Maleen is with the Western Bat Program, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada who are part of a large multi-organization/multi-university study to examine the effect of exposing healthy bats to a mixture of probiotics. These probiotics are formulated to help the bats survive White Nose Syndrome.
White Nose Syndrome has been detected in bats in Washington State and Alberta, but not yet in BC bats. The race is on to try to discover a treatment, and probiotic exposure is looking like one promising approach to deal with this deadly fungus.
Members of BMN’s Bat Team have been working with Maleen this past summer. She serves as the Probiotic Project Coordinator for WCS.