Seasonal patterns in pathogen transmission can influence the impact of disease on populations and the speed of spatial spread. Increases in host contact rates or births drive seasonal epidemics in some systems, but other factors may occasionally override these influences. White-nose syndrome, caused by the emerging fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans, is spreading across North America and threatens several bat species with extinction. We examined patterns and drivers of seasonal transmission of P. destructans by measuring infection prevalence and pathogen loads in six bat species at 30 sites across the eastern United States. Bats became transiently infected in autumn, and transmission spiked in early winter when bats began hibernating. Nearly all bats in six species became infected by late winter when infection intensity peaked. In summer, despite high contact rates and a birth pulse, most bats cleared infections and prevalence dropped to zero. These data suggest the dominant driver of seasonal transmission dynamics was a change in host physiology, specifically hibernation. Our study is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to describe the seasonality of transmission in this emerging wildlife disease. The timing of infection and fungal growth resulted in maximal population impacts, but only moderate rates of spatial spread.

ESM_prevalencePrevalence data from sites (hibernacula, swarm, maternity colonies) affected by white-nose syndrome used to construct figure 2. Time is converted as described in the methods, where 0 represented the first day of fall swarm sampling.ESM_loadsMean load values of individuals at sites (hibernacula, fall swarm, maternity colonies) affected by white-nose syndrome used to construct figure 3. Time is modified as described in the methods where 0 represented the first day of fall swarm sampling. lse is the standard error of the log loads means.