title: Host persistence or extinction from emerging infectious disease: insights from white-nose syndrome in endemic and invading regions.
abstract: Predicting species' fates following the introduction of a novel pathogen is a significant and growing problem in conservation. Comparing disease dynamics between introduced and endemic regions can offer insight into which naive hosts will persist or go extinct, with disease acting as a filter on host communities. We examined four hypothesized mechanisms for host-pathogen persistence by comparing host infection patterns and environmental reservoirs for Pseudogymnoascus destructans (the causative agent of white-nose syndrome) in Asia, an endemic region, and North America, where the pathogen has recently invaded. Although colony sizes of bats and hibernacula temperatures were very similar, both infection prevalence and fungal loads were much lower on bats and in the environment in Asia than North America. These results indicate that transmission intensity and pathogen growth are lower in Asia, likely due to higher host resistance to pathogen growth in this endemic region, and not due to host tolerance, lower transmission due to smaller populations, or lower environmentally driven pathogen growth rate. Disease filtering also appears to be favouring initially resistant species in North America. More broadly, determining the mechanisms allowing species persistence in endemic regions can help identify species at greater risk of extinction in introduced regions, and determine the consequences for disease dynamics and host-pathogen coevolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, EE Biology/EMS, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA hoytjosephr@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Joseph R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hoyt
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, EE Biology/EMS, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
authors.forename: Kate E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Langwig
authors.affiliation: Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Keping
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, People's Republic of China Urban and Environmental Science College, Changchun Normal University, Changchun 130032, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guanjun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA.
authors.forename: Katy L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Parise
authors.affiliation: Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Tinglei
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, EE Biology/EMS, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
authors.forename: Winifred F
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9469-1839
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Frick
authors.affiliation: Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.affiliation: Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, People's Republic of China fengj@nenu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, EE Biology/EMS, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
authors.forename: A Marm
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kilpatrick
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000502:physiology*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D002685:Chiroptera; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D007087:Illinois / Q000453:epidemiology; D009181:Mycoses / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D015995:Prevalence; D014922:Wisconsin / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Geomyces destructans; Pseudogymnoascus destructans; White-nose syndrome; emerging infectious disease; resistance; tolerance