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Monday 13 January 2003

Poor Bat Advice

The Oban Times Publishes Land-Care Editor’s Letter on 9th January 2003

Sir,

I wish to comment on the letter from Professor Colin Galbraith, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) chief scientist, The Oban Times, December 5.

Among the last 32 deaths from rabies in the USA the majority were people who had acquired the infection from bats without ever being aware of having been bitten by a bat. The symptoms of rabies appeared without warning, with fatal results.

In Europe, between 1997 and 2000, a total of 630 European Bat Lyssavirus (EBL) cases in bats have been confirmed, mainly in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany.

A total of 180 people bitten by EBL bats in the Netherlands have been treated with 100 per cent success over the past two decades using post-exposure vaccination. Sooner or later the American experience of persons being unaware of being bitten by a rabid bat is bound to occur. How much conservation and biodiversity is worth a human life?

The prevalence of rabies in bats in the UK may well be on the increase. Disease patterns in animals - as in man - can rapidly change. For example, there has been a 25 per cent increase in the prevalence of rabies in bats between 1999 and 2000 in the USA.

Rabies virus in bats is not confined to one species. A rabid bat does not necessarily behave like a normal bat, so it is flippant to suggest that rabid bats will just keep out of the way if you leave them alone.

All bats in the UK are protected by a conservation law, yet there are species of bat in Scotland that are not under any threat.

As they are potential carriers of the deadly virus, why do we conserve them so that they can share occupancy in people’s houses?

At least the chief SNH scientist might be more honest about the underlying science - or did he just not do his homework properly? He should be assessing and informing about the risks in the future, rather than in the past.

Dr James Irvine FRSE
Teviot Scientific Consultancy, Edinburgh

Further Reading

Jackson, A. C. and Fenton, M. B. (2001). Human Rabies and Bat Bites. Lancet, 357: 1714.

Irvine, W. J. (2002). Bats and Rabies, No. 3 - How can Rabies be transmitted from Bats to People? Land-Care, 18 December 2002. (Click here to view).

Irvine, W. J. (2002). Bats and Rabies, No. 2 - Comment on letter from Bat Conservation Trust, Courier 30 November 2002. Land-Care, 16 December 2002. (Click here to view).

Irvine, W. J. (2002). Bats and Rabies, No. 1 - First Death from Rabies in the UK for 100 years. Land-Care, 12 December 2002. (Click here to view).

Letters reproduced from the Dundee Courier regarding rabies in bats. Land-Care, 12 December 2002. (Click here to view).

Suspected Rabies in Man bitten by a BAT in Scotland. Land-Care, 19 November 2002. (Click here to view).