The Geomyces sp. fungus associated with bat White-nose syndrome has been detected on two little brown bats examined from Breathing Cave in Bath County, Virginia. This included one female that was in excellent body condition, others were described as having poor/minimal fat stores. Two of the 4 Eastern pipistrelles were also examined from this site but neither tested positive for WNS.
The lab used multiple methods including fungal culture, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) — essentially a lab method of replicating portions of a selected DNA sequence by orders of magnitude — and histopathology.
Additional testing is being conducted on the remaining pipistrelles to see if the fungus can be recovered from this species at this site.
Four (three pips and one little brown) of six bats submitted from Clover Hollow Cave, in Giles County, Virginia, were examined. All bats have tested positive for Geomyces sp. fungus by culture, PCR and histopathology.
All bats examined from both locations tested negative for rabies.