POST CATEGORY : Wildlife
American Kestrel near Saxapahaw
Bats of Bolin Creek, Chapel Hill
Bats and Public Health: An Emerging Concern
Since researchers identified Horseshoe Bats as a likely reservoir for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, research on the connection between bats and emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) has increased. Bats have been known reservoirs for the rabies virus since the early 1900s when vampire bats caused a pandemic of rabies in South American cattle. The enormous health and economic costs of disease outbreaks such as SARS make identifying the sources of disease and developing policies to prevent outbreaks imperative. Beginning in April 2012, another coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) began affecting humans in Saudi Arabia. Like SARS, bats are again implicated as possible reservoirs for this new disease.
Read the full paper here:
201311_bats_public_health
Quick! Grab the Camera!
Battle for Bats
Battle For Bats: Surviving White Nose Syndrome from Ravenswood Media on Vimeo.
Bats are rapidly dying off across the eastern United States due to White Nose Syndrome. In less than 10 years, populations of certain bat species have gone from hundreds of thousands to near extinction.