Prevalence and severity of alopecia lesions on gray bats, Myotis grisescens, peaks during lactation
Ashleigh B Cable, Megan Kinsella, Richard Gerhold, Elizabeth Hamrick, Cory Holliday, Chris Ogle, Robert T Stinson II, Dustin Thames, Emma V Willcox, Beza Ramasindrazana · 2024
Read Prevalence and severity of alopecia lesions on gray bats, Myotis grisescens, peaks during lactation by Ashleigh B Cable, Megan Kinsella, Richard Gerhold, Elizabeth Hamrick, Cory Holliday, Chris Ogle, Robert T Stinson II, Dustin Thames, Emma V Willcox, Beza Ramasindrazana (2024) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-11611138.txt.
Description
Gray bats in several roosts were found with bald patches on their backs, a worrying sign in an endangered species. Ashleigh Cable and co-authors set out to learn when the fur loss strikes and what causes it. Over one summer they trapped bats at four roosts, scored each bald patch, and sampled the skin for fungi, bacteria, and mites. Microscope checks found no sign that burrowing mites cause the loss.
The pattern pointed at motherhood. Fur loss peaked in females that were nursing or had just finished, reaching about six percent of captured females during pup rearing, and their patches were the most severe. Males showed a smaller peak early in summer. Bald bats were in no worse body condition than furred ones. The authors suspect stress linked strain on nursing mothers, and they suggest that easing stress and supporting food supply in summer would help the species.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ashleigh B Cable, Megan Kinsella, Richard Gerhold, Elizabeth Hamrick, Cory Holliday, Chris Ogle, Robert T Stinson II, Dustin Thames, Emma V Willcox, Beza Ramasindrazana |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 32 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |