DNR: Deadly bat disease has spread into Dane County

MADISON (AP) — Wisconsin wildlife officials say a deadly bat disease has spread into Dane County.

Department of Natural Resources officials announced Tuesday that swabs taken from two eastern pipistrelles from a single cave in November tested positive for the white-nose syndrome fungus.

DNR officials say crews will return to the cave in March to look for signs of white-nose syndrome. The agency didn't say where the bats were found other than to stress it wasn't Cave of the Mounds, a popular tourist cave. Owen Boyle, chief of the DNR's species management section, says the agency doesn't disclose the location of threatened species.

The disease was first detected in Wisconsin in a Grant County mine in 2014. Tests showed that 2 percent of the bats at the site had the disease.