White-Nose Syndrome Webinar Series

On January 27, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held the first of a series of WNS webinars. This one was targeted specifically to state and federal agency biologists and land managers as a training seminar. We asked for both the NSS and cave conservancies to be able to participate, but were declined. Instead, they pledged to put as much up on line as possible, and also to include a broader audience in the next two: for educators and communicators late winter or early spring; and for the general public later spring, once this season's bat survey figures are in.

In the meantime, USFWS removed agency-specific information as well as proprietary scientific information (unpublished and not yet peer reviewed), but posted the rest of the presentations. Here is the link:

http://nctc.fws.gov/CSP/Resources/white_nose_syndrome_webinar_series/home.html

Click on the link and follow the link to the Archive of past White-Nose Syndrome webinars. USFWS says that "all of the content on the Archive can be shared with the public, so please feel free to forward this link to anyone that is interested."

While I've personally only viewed two of them to date, I did note that the last one, which deals with decon protocols, does include the new "hot water" standard, replacing the former "boiling water" standard. Specifically, immersing gear in water >50 degrees Celsius (122F) for at least 15 minutes will kill the fungus.

We are still waiting for the new formal national WNS decon protocol to be posted, but clearly USFWS is already publicizing and training on this standard. I think this is an important development, as it is both a non-chemical alternative, safer for the environment and for humans to handle, and easier to accomplish than boiling water.

Source: Peter Youngbaer @ Cavechat