Dr. Miller graduated from the University of Missouri with a BS in Animal Science and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. Since 1992, she has been a Wildlife Disease Specialist at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, where she works to solve wildlife disease problems. In 2008 she collected field samples from a WNS positive cave in Vermont to learn more about white-nose syndrome (WNS), the disease killing bats in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut by the
thousands. WNS has now spread as far west as Kentucky, as far south as
North Carolina, and to four Canadian provinces. It is estimated that
over a million bats have died since 2007, making this the largest
disease outbreak among mammals in modern times. "One of my Center’s laboratories first isolated a cold-loving fungus from sick bats that they later named
Geomyces destructans." she said. She also hailed the organized cave organizations saying: "The caving community has helped efforts to prevent the accidental spread of the fungus to new areas on equipment and supplies."
SOURCES
http://gallery.usgs.gov/photos/10_04_2012_e38Lcp5BBv_10_04_2012_0#.U4AA7BnLHWc
http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/12/01/usgs-at-forefront-of-saving-bats-from-white-nose-syndrome/
Comments
Post a Comment