Come again? Infant mortality increases as the number of bats decreases

A study published in the journal Science earlier in the month showed a very real and concerning connection between falling populations of bats and higher infant mortalities in humans. 

If you’re thinking, “Now that can’t be,” let me explain, or let the journal’s editor explain. She wrote: 

“County-level insecticide use and infant mortality…both increased after the emergence of white-nose syndrome [which kills bats]… This study provides an example of how biodiversity loss affects human well-being and presents observational methods for quantifying those costs.” 

The author, Dr. Eyal Frank at the University of Chicago, looked at 245 rural counties where white-nose syndrome was present in bats. In those counties, the data show that farms had upped their insecticide use by 31.1%, demonstrating a “substitution between a declining natural input and a human-made input.”

Meanwhile, infant mortality rates rose by an average of 7.9% in those same counties. In total, the number of infant deaths from 2006 to 2017 was estimated at 1,334 throughout the 245 counties affected by white-nose syndrome. The author looked for other causes to explain the increase, but found none.

On one hand, it’s one study. On the other hand, wow.

In a New York Times story, Carmen Messerlian, a Harvard professor of environmental reproductive, perinatal, and pediatric epidemiology, said, “It’s a seminal piece. I actually think it’s groundbreaking.” 

It’s another reason why we need to protect the natural world. In doing so we can save ourselves.