Indiana
Genomic tools reveal health insights for endangered Indiana bats
How do wildlife researchers know when an endangered population is sick? They can detect infectious microbes in animal waste, but the presence of a microbe doesn’t always equate to impactful symptomatic infections. In a new study, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers have used advanced molecular tools to survey the health status of endangered Indiana bats, identifying microbiome changes resulting from parasitic infections.
The findings are published in the journal Microbial Genomics.
“In conservation medicine, sick patients will rarely schedule a follow-up visit, so tracking the impact of a disease in real time is a challenge. We take a big picture view of microbial interactions at the population level to infer the burden of a disease over time from a snapshot,” said lead study author Andrew Bennett, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois.
Bennett and his colleagues temporarily captured Indiana bats at the entrance of a Missouri hibernation site, gently holding them long enough to collect a single fecal sample. They brought these samples back to a lab where they extracted DNA and identified the presence of gut microbes and parasites using a process called multiplex metabarcoding. They also documented changes in the makeup of the gut microbiome that corresponded with the amount of parasites present.
What they found was Eimeria, a protozoan parasite that hangs out in the gut and causes coccidiosis, a disease that leads to economic losses in many livestock animals. Bennett says Eimeria can be present at low levels in the gut without causing problems, but research in other animals has shown that stress can cause Eimeria to proliferate, invading and damaging gut tissue and leading to secondary bacterial infections.
“This is where our work adds value. Before, if we just detected Eimeria, we wouldn’t necessarily be able to say whether it was causing problems,” Bennett said. “But by analyzing changes in the microbiome that are associated with Eimeria load in these bats, we gain a non-invasive marker that can help us assess their gut health.”
The analysis revealed that bats with high loads of Eimeria had a corresponding proliferation of Clostridium bacteria, particularly those associated with severe tissue damage in other species.
Study co-author Joy O’Keefe, associate professor in NRES and wildlife Extension specialist, says they can still only guess at symptoms infected bats might be experiencing and whether Eimeria infection significantly affects survival or population size.
“We don’t know exactly what the stressors are that would drive bats to experience more ill effects from Eimeria, but this is the first step to allowing us to start making those investigations,” she said. “This also gives us a baseline that we can relate to other things, like management practices, the number of bats in a roost, and behaviors that bats are exhibiting.”
Study co-author Cory Suski, professor in NRES, points out that molecular tools add a level of sophistication to ecological research, as well as a great deal of insightful information.
“So much of conservation is just counting individuals. If there are a lot, we think they must be doing well,” he said. “So this is a way to ask some deeper questions and get information that goes beyond just counting without having to do crazy stuff or take animals into captivity.”
O’Keefe hopes the research community will use the same approach on other endangered bat species in North America to paint a comparative picture of their health.
More information:
Andrew J. Bennett et al, Molecular epidemiology of Eimeria spp. parasites and the faecal microbiome of Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis): a non-invasive, multiplex metabarcode survey of an endangered species, Microbial Genomics (2025). DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.001358
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College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
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Genomic tools reveal health insights for endangered Indiana bats (2025, February 26)
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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Hamilton County teen on Friday said he’s excited for his first convention as a voting delegate.
Jackson Massillamany, who just turned 18 and graduated from high school in May, is no stranger to politics. His father, Mario, is the chair of the Hamilton County Republican Party and his mother, Amy, serves on the Hamilton County Council.
Jackson said he signed up to be a delegate at this weekend’s Indiana Republican Party convention in Fort Wayne after Mario asked if he was interested.
“It’s kinda cool to see how this is done and what my dad actually does,” he said. “At first, I wasn’t really excited for it, but I’m here now and I’m having a blast.”
Mario Massillamany, who is a contributor to “All INdiana Politics,” said Jackson is the youngest delegate at the convention. He said he has been taking Jackson along to party functions ever since he was an infant.
“It’s a great opportunity for him to get more active and involved in politics, and I think we need to try and get the younger generations involved in our political process,” he said. “I think this is a great opportunity for him to come here, have a good experience and then go back and talk to his friends about why it’s important to get involved.”
Jackson will be one of 1,800 delegates tasked with picking a nominee for secretary of state. It’s a closely watched race. Current Secretary of State Diego Morales, who is seeking a second term, has faced numerous controversies since he took office. Knox County Clerk David Shelton and conservative activist and 2024 gubernatorial candidate Jamie Reitenour have been running against Morales for months. Last month, Max Engling, a staffer for Sen. Jim Banks and a 2024 congressional candidate, joined the race at the last minute with Banks’ backing.
The Republican winner in November will have to face Bayh family scion Beau Bayh, a Democrat, along with Libertarian Lauri Shillings and, potentially, former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who is running as an independent under the Lincoln Party label.
Mario said he’s telling Jackson to keep his eyes and ears open and to meet with all of the weekend’s candidates.
Both Massillamanys said the key to getting young people to vote and to get politically involved is to, first, encourage them to register to vote and, second, to elevate more young people who are in politics.
“I feel like many people are scared to be involved in politics because nobody else younger does it,” Jackson said. “So, like, me and other people my age, being able to reach out to others to try and get involved, I feel like, is the best way for people my age to get involved.”
Delegates to the 2026 Indiana Republican Party convention will make their selections on Saturday. Besides secretary of state candidates, they will choose nominees for state treasurer and state comptroller. The current occupants of those offices, Daniel Elliott and Elise Nieshalla, respectively, are running for second terms and are unopposed.
Government reporter Garrett Bergquist will be in Fort Wayne on Saturday and will have a full report on the results of the convention at 6, 10 and 11 p.m. on WISH-TV.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man is dead after a shooting Thursday night on Indy’s near east side, police say.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 8 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on a report of a person shot.
When officers arrived, they found an adult male inside an apartment with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in critical condition, where died shortly after arriving.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene to begin the investigation.
Crime Resources
Gov. Mike Braun asked state regulators to reconsider their decision to greenlight a $71 million rate increase for AES Indiana, doubling down on his condemnation of a move that could leave Indianapolis residents with higher electrical bills for years.
Braun wrote in a June 18 news release that he had asked Indiana Utility Counselor Abby Gray, who heads the office representing ratepayers in proceedings before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, to petition for a rehearing of the AES rate case.
Gray indicated in the release that her office would submit the petition shortly. No petition had been posted on the IURC’s online docket as of this story’s publication.
The rate increase, which was approved by the IURC on June 17, was substantially less than the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It was also less than the amount proposed in a settlement last October between AES and major electricity consumers.
But the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, which Gray leads, came out strongly against any increase to AES’s base rates. In September, the OUCC called for a $21 million reduction instead.
As the Republican Party grapples with rising discontent over affordability, Braun has used opposition to rising utility rates to telegraph that he’s committed to keeping costs down for Indiana residents. He signed a law in February that allows the state to make rate-setting decisions that reward or penalize utilities based on metrics including affordability.
In March, he told reporters that he would take on Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities, describing himself as the “new sheriff in town.”
And after the IURC voted 3-1 to approve the AES rate increase, he wrote in a post to X that he was “deeply disappointed.”
Braun wrote in the June 18 news release that he had appointed Gray, a longtime OUCC lawyer and judge, to her current post because he knew she “would help me fight for Hoosiers.”
According to AES’s estimates, the rate increase will cost households an additional $5 per month for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity they use, beginning in July. A second hike will take effect in January.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
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