Isolation of Rabies Virus from Fruit Bats in Thailand

Abstract

THE transmission of rabies by bats was first reported in 1921 (ref. 1). Vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus murinus) have been found to be an important carrier of sylvatic rabies in South America², and they have been known to shed the virus in their saliva for long periods of time without apparent illness³. Since 1953, when the first rabies isolate from bats in the United States was made from a yellow bat (Dasypterus floridanus) in Florida, there have been more than five hundred isolates from bats in at least thirty-six States⁴. A survey of the literature has failed to reveal reports of rabies in bats in south-east Asia, and publications of the World Health Organization^5,6 state that surveys of bat rabies in Asia have been consistently negative. The same statement about bat rabies in Europe, however, was refuted by Pitzschke⁷, who isolated rabies virus from a wide-winged bat (Epitescus serotinus) in Thuringia, Germany. The high prevalence of rabies in Thailand and the dense bat population prompted us to investigate the disease in bats in this area.