Deadly Bat Fungus Has Now Reached the West Coast

"Federal biologists on Thursday confirmed the presence of a lethal fungus known as white-nose syndrome in Washington, the first occurrence in western North America of the disease that has killed roughly 7 million bats.

The discovery of white-nose syndrome in a little brown bat in North Bend, Wash., about 30 miles east of Seattle, is a setback for cooperative conservation measures, such as restricting human access to bat roosting sites, to slow the spread of the epidemic that was first documented in 2007 in New York.

Since then, the disease that gets its name from the powdery, white substance that appears around muzzles, ears and wings of affected bats has swept across 28 states and five Canadian provinces."

Louis Sahagun reports for the Los Angeles Times March 31, 2016.