Decontamination Recommendations

We are recommending that people visiting caves or mines in BC and Alberta decontaminate their gear when moving between regions. This involves placing your gear in 60oC water for 20 minutes to kill the spores from the WNS fungus. On the coast where spread is expected to occur sooner, regions for our purposes are North Vancouver Island, South Vancouver Island, Fraser Valley. In the rest of BC and Alberta, if you are moving significant distances to cave, particularly if you are meeting for caving expeditions, please decontaminate for these trips and afterwards. If you are coming from WNS-positive regions, these protocols are extremely important. The best practise is to not bring gear from contaminated regions and to acquire it from the destination travelled to. Most important is suits, gloves, footwear, packs and harnesses - in short, anything that accumulates dirt in its fibres. This notice is subject to revision as government responses are formulated. In short, use common sense and please do not introduce this disease to new regions.

Protect Bats

Bats are very sensitive to disturbance while hibernating. If you see hibernating bats, leave the area immediately.

Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
MORE

Clean Gear

Decontaminating your gear between caving trips can prevent the spread of WNS.



Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
MORE

Find Bats

Install a bat monitoring device in a cave or mine when you go caving.



Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
MORE

Updates

DECONTAMINATION FOR CAVERS AND MINE EXPLORERS

The BatCaver program has released a video (see below) demonstrating one easy method of decontaminating caving equipment after exiting a cave or mine. Our BC coordinator walks the viewer step-by-step through one of his common decon procedures: immersing his caving equipment in 60-degree Celsius water for at least 20 minutes. The video is intended to help increase the likelihood that more people will follow recommended procedures by simplifying the procedure that reduces the risks of inadvertently transporting White-nose Syndrome (Pd) spores from one region to another.


White-nose Syndrome has continued spreading westward through Manitoba. It has also been found in Washington State since 2016.  As this highly transmissible and fatal disease of bats continues its spread, adherence to proper decontamination protocol is increasingly important, especially among anyone who may enter multiple caves or mines in a wide geographic range, and anyone operating in the Fraser Valley and US border regions.

 

Additional decontamination procedures can be found under the decontamination protocol link on the BatCaver Resources page. A map of WNS affected areas of North America (2019) is found on the Threats tab.


Video

White-nose Syndrome (WNS) is a fungal disease that has caused up to 100% bat mortality in cave hibernacula in Eastern Canada and United States. Follow these simple and critical decontamination protocols to keep bats safe as you explore. 

DECONTAMINATION OF CAVING GEAR AND EQUIPMENT

DECONTAMINATION PROTOCOLS FOR VISITING BAT HIBERNACULA

Watch this video in French.

© 2020 Wildlife Conservation Society