A lethal condition that has been killing bats in New York for two years has spread into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, wildlife authorities said Friday. First detected in New York in early 2007, the condition rouses bats from hibernation during winter, from where they take flight, burning stored fat and dropping to the ground dead, the newspaper said.

Biologists studying bats in a Mifflin County iron mine found bats with signs of White-Nose Syndrome. Bats with the disease typically have a white fungus around their noses that gives the disorder its name.

"It is pretty clear that we now have classic early stage white-nose syndrome in Pennsylvania," said DeeAnn Reeder, an ecophysiologist and assistant professor of biology at Bucknell University. She is working with state and federal officials and other academic researchers to find out more about the syndrome, first discovered in 2006 among a dying population of bats in New York.

What's unusual about white-nose syndrome is that the bats awaken prematurely, sap their reserves, then fly out in search of food. But with no insects around in winter, their flight is a death sentence. So far, they know little other than that the fungus and the deaths occur together. Whether the fungus is a symptom or a cause, biologists can't tell.

What’s for sure is the fact that if the bat population is decimated, bugs and crop pests could flourish, some experts say.

Many of the dead bats that were found inside three abandoned mines in Rockaway Township and Denville, where the majority of New Jersey's bat populations are located, were found with the fungus around their noses and wing membranes. This condition later spread to Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut.