Quote Originally Posted by Andre View Post
Has it spread far to other states or is it contained in one area Tm?
Now we have touched on problem 2
In one year it spread from New England all the way to WV,so we dont know if its migratory born,or is it human contamination.
Bats will migrate a little,and could in theory pass it down the chain, but cave explorers also will hit numerous systems in a year,and in multiple states.
Now,I'll admit my expertise in the area is species identification while doing bat counts, but I find it seriously troubling that the people whose word I take as gospel usually,all disagree right now. And to make it worse,all of their theories are completely credible.
Ive caved for most of my adult life,and have been published in all the major caving publications,and Im telling you blunt, we really dont know. All we really know is the symptoms,and that the kill ratio for a bat colony can run as high as %90. There have even been reports that its jumped over to Europe,that may be alarmist,I didnt get to check the bats myself,and didnt know the people who claimed it so I cant take it on faith.
I know alot of people dont like,or are afraid of bats,its a phobia that our culture pushes. But they are amazingly beneficial little things. They eat the bug that causes most of our airborn diseases.
Im still worryed about this for obvious reasons,and Im even more worried that all of the people in the field, that know more then I do by far,cant even agree on what it is.It doesnt seem to transmit in to humans, but there are all kinds of things that mosquitos carry that can,and less bats=more mosquitos