A fatal fungal disease that has been running rampant in snake populations on the east coast and has been found as far west as Illinois has now been identified in at least nine states. The disease can cause crusty scabs and lesions, sometimes on the head, and has a high mortality rate in some populations. Although it affects a number of species, it's especially threatening to rattlesnakes that live in small, isolated populations. It's unclear if this fungal disease was brought to the United States from elsewhere, or if it has always been present and for some unknown reason is now infecting snakes.

"I think potentially this could overwhelm any conservation effort we could employ to try to protect this last remaining population," said Doug Blodgett, a biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife

In New Hampshire, the disease helped halve the population of rattlesnakes, now estimated at only several dozen. In Illinois the disease infects about 15 percent of the population of about 300 of massasauga rattlesnakes every year with a mortality rate of 80 to 90 percent.

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