African Bats: Conservation in the time of Ebola

Abstract

Introduction:Bats are among the most poorly studied mammals, despite their diversity and important ecological services. The ongoing Ebola epidemic in western Africa underscores the increasingly recognized role of bats as reservoirs for emerging human diseases. An understanding of the mechanisms supporting pathogen maintenance in bat hosts is essential to informing future public health measures, as well as conservation efforts for wild bat populations. This is crucial in Africa, where the human population is burgeoning, increasing habitat loss and human contact with wildlife.The importance of natural history. The natural history and ecology of bats, especially in Africa, is poorly understood, making responsible management decisions difficult. Metrics for guiding management of pathogens and their host populations, such as critical community size and minimum viable population size, often require more natural history knowledge than we currently have available. We argue that management action without adequate research can lead to counterproductive results. In the past, fear-based management responses such as culling campaigns have counterintuitively increased the prevalence of pathogens in the target host population, as has been observed in the vampire bat-rabies system and the Egyptian fruit bat-Marburg system.Bat conservation in the time of Ebola. Many of the same anthropogenic stressors that are threatening bat populations, such as habitat loss and hunting, are also likely drivers of zoonotic pathogen emergence. Given this, and given that reducing bat populations can increase rather than decrease pathogen prevalence, we argue that conservation measures for bats should be strengthened in this time of Ebola. We offer a few potential first steps. Conclusions and Future Directions:We advocate the precautionary principle, and encourage significant and urgent increases in natural history studies, education, and conservation measures for African bats.

Robust evidence for bats as reservoir hosts is lacking in most African virus studies: a review and call to optimize sampling and conserve bats

“…Data about life history (population estimates, reproductive patterns, age), movement ecology, and habitat use (including co-roosting) are crucial for understanding viral dynamics and the role of bats as reservoir hosts, and for the assessment of spillover risk [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44]. This information was largely absent in the reviewed studies.…”

Human activities link fruit bat presence to Ebola virus disease outbreaks

“…Nevertheless, negative attitudes that may threaten populations of these animals (e.g. by uncontrolled culling of fruit bats) must be avoided (Guyton & Brook 2015). The loss of bats will in turn affect the ecosystem services they provide (Kunz et al 2011) and may even increase pathogen prevalence and enhance disease transmission to humans (Streicker et al 2012, Amman et al 2014.…”

Global response of conservationists across mass media likely constrained bat persecution due to COVID-19

“…In this sense the scientific literature acts as a possible source of (mis)information for mass media and the information shared by the scientific literature may be replaced and amplified by the mass media, which also often frame bats as a serious threat to human health ( Schneeberger and Voigt, 2016 ). The overabundant news relating to specific topics, such as bat-associated diseases, may lead to an overestimation of the risk posed by bats and, in extreme cases, may fuel direct persecution of these suspected disease reservoirs ( Buttke et al, 2015 ; Guyton and Brook, 2015 ). A balanced and accurate communication about health risk involving bats is fundamental to both mitigate the spread of diseases and render conservation efforts for bats more effective ( Crockford et al, 2018 ; López-Baucells et al, 2018 ).…”