News Finding: The researchers began to detect low levels of fungal infection in the fall, probably as a result of bats coming in contact with spores of the fungus inside the hibernacula.
Paper Finding: The rapid increase in prevalence between late autumn and early hibernation could have been caused by the large increase in loads which increased infectiousness.
News Context: "Bats that survive the winter can clear the fungal infection once they warm up, so that by mid-summer, when the young of the year are born, almost no bats are infected any more." The researchers began to detect low levels of fungal infection in the fall, probably as a result of bats coming in contact with spores of the fungus inside the hibernacula. "The bats are still active then, so the infections are at a very low level and don't appear to be growing.
Paper Context: Fungal loads also increased substantially with the onset of hibernation. The rapid increase in prevalence between late autumn and early hibernation could have been caused by the large increase in loads which increased infectiousness. Temperatures of bats during hibernation are approximately the same as ambient temperatures of hibernacula , and are within the range of temperatures that the pathogen can grow , resulting in explosive amplification of P. destructans on hibernating bats.