Haematophagous Bats in Brazil, Their Role in Rabies Transmission, Impact on Public Health, Livestock Industry and Alternatives to an Indiscriminate Reduction of Bat Population

Abstract

Haematophagous bats exist only in Latin America, from México to the Northern provinces of Argentina. They are represented by three species, Desmodus rotundus, Diphylla ecaudata and Diaemus youngii. While two species feed only on blood of wild birds, one species, D. rotundus, causes losses feeding on livestock and could be a vector for rabies virus. The cases in which humans were bitten by the bat have increased in Brazil. Bats became a target of control activities by farming communities and local governments. Indiscriminate actions such as poisoning bats and destroying their roosts put the lives of other bat species, which are extremely important for the ecologic balance, at risk. The vaccination of exposed livestock against rabies, which would protect the endangered livestock, is not regularly carried out. The importance and current status of D. rotundus in the transmission of rabies in Brazil, the Public Health aspects, the importance for the livestock industry are shown and the consequences of reducing bat population are discussed. Alternatives to an indiscriminate bat-population reduction in the control of rabies are proposed.

Human exposure to potential rabies virus transmitters in Olinda, State of Pernambuco, between 2002 and 2006

“…There has been an increasing risk of human exposure to both hematophagous and non-hematophagous bats in the Americas 3 4 . Attacks of vampire bats on humans have been linked to factors such as gold mining, livestock movements and deforestation 13 . In outbreaks of human rabies transmitted by vampire bats in the Amazon region of Brazil and Peru, humanmade environmental modifications to bat habitats, (e.g.…”

Bat-transmitted Human Rabies Outbreaks, Brazilian Amazon

“…Previous reports of bat-transmitted outbreaks were based only on clinical and epidemiologic linkage, and in all of these outbreaks, infected persons were living in small, remote areas with difficult access in the Amazon region, including isolated Indian villages and clandestine gold mining areas in the states of central and northern Brazil. In these episodes, deaths were reported several weeks after the patients had died and therefore, no clinical specimens could be examined ( 7 , 20 ). …”

Bats in the Anthropogenic Matrix: Challenges and Opportunities for the Conservation of Chiroptera and Their Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Landscapes

“…However, local farmers may not distinguish between these groups. For example, farmers and agricultural technicians in Latin America often attempt to cull vampire bat populations by destroying bat roosts; unfortunately, the widespread belief that all bats are "vampiros" frequently results in the destruction of colonies of beneficial bat species (Mayen 2003;Aguiar et al 2010). If local people perceive the ecosystem services of one bat group as offsetting the damages of another, then an ecosystem service approach could provide a framework for bat conservation more broadly.…”