Athlete's Foot Drug Could Cure Rampant Bat Disease

The cure to a terrible disease ravaging bat populations across the United States may be located in your local convenience store, new research shows.

The deadly fungal infection white nose syndrome claimed its first victims back in 2006. Since then its impact has skyrocketed from a fluke phenomenon to a country-wide plague -- around a million bats have already died, with numerous species on track for extinction in the next 16 years.

The urgency to stop the disease prompted a team of researchers from the New York State Department of Health to test fungicides currently used to combat athlete's foot and other infections in humans and animals on white nose. The researchers presented their fruitful findings this week at a meeting of the American Society of Microbiology.

White nose syndrome grows on bats' skin during the winter and irritates them, rousing them from hibernation. Not used to being awake when it is so cold, the bats burn so much energy trying to stay warm that they deplete their fat reserves, and eventually become too weak to fly or catch food.

Earlier this summer, research showed that warming in caves could potentially curtail the trend. Warmer cave temperatures would save bats from wasting as much of their precious energy stores during unprecedented hibernation interruptions.

But greater insight into how white nose syndrome affects the bats is proving troublesome for the theory: more than just incessantly waking the bats like the alarm clock from hell, the fungus may actually damage bat wings.

Fortunately for the bats, the new research has turned up something much more interesting than a cave-warming quick fix -- researchers may have discovered an actual cure.

After testing out drugs used to fight fungi in other species, scientists identified two major classes of fugnicides that proved successful in combating the bat pathogen in preliminary experiments. Both types of drugs include fluconazole, a widely used anti-fungal compound.

With a potential cure in hand, researchers are now focusing on creating a strategy for using it. Applying the drugs needs to be a careful, well-thought-out process.

Spraying the drugs haphazardly around infected locations could prove dangerous, even lethal, to other species in cave habitats. No one knows how different bat species will respond to the treatment, either -- the scientific literature is pretty scant on studies in which researchers douse bat caves in athlete's foot powder.

But as scientists work toward a solution for using their new-found remedy, the clock continues to tick toward winter. And the disease moves fast. The first cases were reported in the Northeast -- New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut -- but in just four years, white nose syndrome has spread as far west as Oklahoma and all the way down to Tennessee.

It's critical that this affliction be stopped as soon as possible. Bats are a crucial part of our environment, feeding on mosquitos and other insects, which helps protect crops from being devoured by pests. 

Image: Marvin Moriarty, United States Fish and Wildlife Service