Diagnosing the bat disease known as white-nose syndrome can now be done more safely and effectively with ultra-violet light.

Millions of bats in the U.S. have perished from white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that is caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus (Geomyces) destructans (Pd). This disease was first detected in New York during the winter of 2006. The disease has since spread to 25 states across the U.S., as well as five Canadian provinces.

Long-wave UV light produces a distinctive orange-yellow glow when it is directed at the wings of bats with this disease. This fluorescence corresponds with the microscopic lesions that are a common symptom of white-nose syndrome. Rather than having to euthanize bats in order to diagnose the disease when it was already killing so many, scientists can now use UV light as a non-lethal means of identifying which bats were infected, and simply gathering a tiny biopsy instead of having to sacrifice the bat.

Carol Meteyer, USGS scientist and one of the lead authors of the study, has great expectations and hopes for the implementation and use of UV light as a screening tool for detecting white-nose syndrome in bats.

“Ultraviolet light was first used in 1925 to look for ringworm fungal infections in humans. The fact that this technique could be transferred to bats and have such remarkable precision for indicating lesions positive for Pd invasion is very exciting,” said Meteyer in a statement.

The findings of this research are published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.