Deadly fungal disease that attacks bats detected for first time in Oregon

A deadly fungal disease that has put at least one bat species on the federal Endangered Species List has been detected in Oregon for the first time.

State Fish and Wildlife officials on Wednesday announced that scientists from the National Wildlife Health Center in March identified six bats in Columbia and Benton counties suffering from white-nose syndrome.

The scientists at each agency will work together to continue monitoring and identifying sites where bats might be infected and coordinate care for the bats with wildlife rehabilitators and the Oregon Veterinary Disease Laboratory at Oregon State University, according to a news release.

The fungus causing white-nose syndrome was previously detected in bat guano collected from a roost in Clatsop County in 2025, but officials had never before detected it in Oregon bats themselves until this month, state wildlife officials said.

Oregon was one of about a dozen states that had avoided the fungus and the disease since it first showed up in New York around 2006. It was first detected in Washington in 2016.

It has so far been found in 38 states and killed nearly 7 million bats, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2022, the service announced that the northern long-eared bat, found across much of the U.S. and Canada, would be the first bat species to be listed as endangered due to the disease.

The disease attacks bats’ skin while they hibernate. As it spreads, it causes scarring and holes in their wings. It can cause them to break hibernation and fly into the cold to look for food, burning up their fat stores needed to survive winter. Without insects that thrive in warmer months, they can freeze or starve to death.

The fungus spreads primarily through bat-to-bat contact, but humans play a role in the spread via contaminated clothing, gear and equipment brought into or out of caves or visiting areas near bats’ summer roosts. Managed caves, including the Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve in southern Oregon, prohibit any gear, clothing or shoes that have been in other caves.

There are currently no endangered or threatened bats in Oregon, according to the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. Because the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome has become so common in the U.S., it is unlikely that it will go away, federal wildlife officials say.

Oregon Capital Chronicle

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