In Bat Die-Off, Human Infants Also Paid the Price

When a deadly fungal disease from Europe spread to bats in the United States, killing off colonies of the creatures, one scientist wanted to see what such a bat die-off would mean in other ways. What the University of Chicago's Eyal Frank found: that in counties where infected bats were prevalent, the infant mortality rate rose.

• The fungus: The Guardian notes that Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the fungus that leads to white-nose syndrome in bats (sickened bats often end up with white fuzz on their sniffers), arrived in the US in 2006, with the potential to kill off entire bat colonies in just five years.

• Frank's research: For his study published Friday in Science, Frank discovered that, from 2006 to 2017, farmers in areas where bats were succumbing to the disease had upped their use of pesticides by an average of 31.1%, as bats were usually the ones to devour local crop-destroying insects. Then, when Frank checked infant mortality rates—"a metric commonly used to judge the impact of environmental toxins," per the Guardian—he found that infected counties saw an average jump of 7.9% in the infant death rate. That's about 1,300 excess deaths in total across the nation, compared to counties where bats had escaped white-nose syndrome.
• Other factors? Frank says he "kicked a lot of different tires" to rule out other possible causes for such a spike, including the weather, unemployment, genetically altered crops, and differences among mothers, per the Washington Post.
• What it all means: "This study estimates just a few of the consequences we suffer from the disappearance of bats, and they are just one of the species we're losing," says Bard College biology professor Felicia Keesing, who wasn't involved in the study. "These results should motivate everyone, not just farmers and parents, to clamor for the protection and restoration of biodiversity."

(More bats stories.)