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Incidence of Rabies in Bats

The disease rabies has three reservoirs of infection. The first reservoir is urban animals. The second one is wildlife such as wild dogs, coyotes, wolves, and bears. The third reservoir of infection is bats. Bats are responsible for the spread of rabies in many countries.

  1. Incidence

    • Six percent of captured bats have the the rabies virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bats infected with the virus have been found in the United States, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Brazil, Denmark, Holland and Germany. Bats become infected with rabies by being in close proximity to or being bitten by other rabid bats.

    Signs of infection

    • Bats infected with rabies usually do not show signs of infection in the early stages of the disease and are not discernible from healthy bats. As the disease progresses the infected animal might fly erratically or lose its ability to fly altogether. Unlike dogs or coyotes, bats rarely become aggressive when suffering from rabies.

    Risks

    • Rabid bats can infect humans with the disease. Vampire bats are particularly dangerous because of their need to feed on human or animal blood. Vampire bats have caused infections in domestic livestock and in humans who spent a lot of their time outdoors. Vampire bats cause 50,000 to 100,000 rabies-related cattle deaths a year worldwide, according to Dr. John E. Park, a public health scientist and an authority on preventive medicine.

    Prevention

    • The public health authorities of the United States, Canada and many other countries use vaccines disguised as food to control rabies infection in their local wildlife. Animals such as wolves, foxes, and raccoons are vaccinated by feeding them vaccine bait. This method is not effective for bats because they consume blood or are insectivores. International research is still being conducted on how to vaccinate bats against rabies.

    Considerations

    • People should avoid contact with all wild bats and other wild mammals, because any wild mammal is a potential carrier of rabies. All bats that are dead, appear sick, or are easily captured should be reported to local animal-control or public-health authorities.

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