Bat House Forum

[Dave M]

I was talking with my neighbor tonight and he asked about bats and rabies. We wondered, "how does a bat catch rabies in the first place?" If the virus is passed through bites, what could bite a bat enough to puncture the skin, but not be able to kill it at that moment? So I looked on the CDC website and found a few tidbits of info, but not quite what I'm looking for. From the CDC:
1) All species of mammals are susceptible to rabies virus infection, but only a few species are important as reservoirs for the disease.
2) Several species of insectivorous bats are also reservoirs for strains of the rabies virus.
3) Inhalation of aerosolized rabies virus is also a potential non-bite route of exposure.

The rabies virus is only found in the saliva and nervous system of infected mammals, not in the blood, urine or feces. At first I thought maybe a bat could eat a mosquito that had ingested blood from an infected mammal and catch rabies that way, but not so because the rabies virus is not found in blood. Inhalation of aerosoized rabies is interesting, because if a rabid bat inside a bat colony (or bat house) sneezed, the others would likely inhale some of the infected saliva. Perhaps infected bats would also bite other bats roosting nearby. Anyway I can see how bats might pass it to each other, but I still wonder how rabies found its way into bats in the first place.

I'm not trying to scare anyone about bats and rabies with this post, in fact I like bats and would like more of them in my neighborhood. Just don't try to handle them and you should be fine.

I'd like to hear what others think about how bats catch rabies.

[Charles Parker]

I know that protocol for protection of workers at risk (guys cleaning up in zoonotic disease environments) requires goggles and or some sort of eye protection as your eyes are the largest exposed MUCOUS membrane on your face. In my opinion this would be the best answer, that is of course until we have any evidence to the contrary...

[Joe Spencer]

In addition to contraction from their roost-mates of which Dave noted, bats contract rabies from their predators when the animals attack but the bat (prey) escapes. Bat predators susceptible to rabies include skunks, fox, opossums, raccoons and cats. Bats which roost and congregate in colonies (crevice roosters) are far more susceptible than bats which primarily roost as loners such as the red bat. I'm thinking that one of the latter predators can more readily detect/seek a colony than a singular bat and in the effort to get one or more of the colony members as a meal they may infect another bat which becomes a temporarily lucky survivor but in the long run be detrimental to a colony as the survivor can become a transmitter. I also think I remember that bats can become immune to rabies through a low dose exposure to rabies similar to the way we vaccinate ourselves and other mammals. Amazingly, vampire bats can spread the disease but are immune to it and therefore don't die from rabies. I'm not sure if it includes all vampire species or just some.

[William Bagwell]

Just re-read Dave's Aug 21 post and thought of something new pertaining to this...
"The rabies virus is only found in the saliva and nervous system of infected mammals, not in the blood, urine or feces. At first I thought maybe a bat could eat a mosquito that had ingested blood from an infected mammal and catch rabies that way, but not so because the rabies virus is not found in blood."

What about tears? There are various species of gnats and flies that will drink tears from mammals (including humans if they get a chance). Might not be a common route of transmission but would only need to happen once to start an infected colony?

William

[Joe Spencer]

Seems plausible William. I wonder though if this would fall under the low dosage category?