much like their mythical namesakes
vampire bats must feast on fresh blood
every two to three days or die of
starvation they seek out warm-blooded
mammals thriving off domestic livestock
living in the tropical regions of South
and Central America most victims never
feel a thing and the bite itself is
superficial but increasingly bats are
targeting humans and the encounters are
turning deadly the bats are blamed for
rabies outbreaks in Peru a National
Geographic grantee Daniel Stryker is
researching the environmental causes and
extent of the disease vampire bats are
kind of the perfect storm of different
ecological characteristics on the one
hand these bats are feeding on larger
mammals which are susceptible to rabies
and in order to feed on these animals to
drink their blood they have to bite
inviting is also the main route of
transmission of rabies virus Stryker is
surveying vampire bats from the Amazon
rainforest to the farms along the
valleys of the Andes Mountains vampire
bats are native to Peru the 500 years
ago settlers imported an ideal food
source cattle and as the number of
livestock increases and spreads across
the country so too does the population
of vampire bats today large colonies
thrive near areas devoted to ranching
yet despite the burgeoning bat
population it’s rare for people living
in these agricultural areas to become
infected with rabies rabies is a
frightening and deadly disease the
classic form of the disease turns even
docile creatures into aggressors that
foam at the mouth but the strain found
in vampire bats is different it’s known
as paralytic or dumb rabies causing
disorientation muscle weakness and
eventually death
to learn more he must turn the tables
this time it’s a human taking blood from
a vampire working at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention or the
CDC in Atlanta
Streicher adds a lab strain of the
rabies virus to blood samples he
collected from vampire bats in Peru
after an incubation period the test
results will show which bats had been
exposed to the rabies under the
microscope fluorescent green dye
indicates no antibodies present meaning
the bat was free of disease but if the
results come back clear the bat has
antibodies and striker knows the bat was
exposed to rabies in the recent past
this is an important test for us because
it allows us to first determine whether
the virus is present or absent in a bat
population finally we can ask them
questions at the population level
specifically asking things like as you
have more livestock in a given area do
you see a higher proportion of bats that
have been exposed to this virus
preliminary results indicate that
vampire bats from agricultural areas may
actually have a higher rate of infection
than do bats from other parts of the
country so why then to so few people who
live near cattle ranches fall ill with
rabies if there are so many bats around
infected with the disease Stryker
believes that the livestock act as a
buffer bats prefer passive herds to
people reducing the attacks on the
people
but as vampire bat populations increase
and more lifestyle become infected this
could pose a greater rabies threat to
people in the future the same theory may
explain why human rabies is more common
in Peru’s Amazon rainforest here
developments such as logging mining and
road construction is wiped out vast
tracts of habitat and reduced wildlife
populations and since there’s not much
livestock in this area the bats turn to
another food source humans there may be
fewer infected bats but they bite people
more frequently could this be why the
disease is far more common here than in
the Andes there’s much more to learn
about how widespread rabies is among the
countries bat population what we don’t
know is how this disease is persisting
in the vampire bat so we and as a poor
load of that we don’t know where it is a
bit of our bats so again much more
widespread potentially it’s all it’s
always present these populations
striker will continue to collect data
hoping his research will eventually help
predict where people will need to be
vaccinated the more he learns about this
frightening disease the better the
chance we may someday be able to control
it sponsored by National Geographic
mission programs taking science and
exploration into the new millennium
vampire bats must feast on fresh blood
every two to three days or die of
starvation they seek out warm-blooded
mammals thriving off domestic livestock
living in the tropical regions of South
and Central America most victims never
feel a thing and the bite itself is
superficial but increasingly bats are
targeting humans and the encounters are
turning deadly the bats are blamed for
rabies outbreaks in Peru a National
Geographic grantee Daniel Stryker is
researching the environmental causes and
extent of the disease vampire bats are
kind of the perfect storm of different
ecological characteristics on the one
hand these bats are feeding on larger
mammals which are susceptible to rabies
and in order to feed on these animals to
drink their blood they have to bite
inviting is also the main route of
transmission of rabies virus Stryker is
surveying vampire bats from the Amazon
rainforest to the farms along the
valleys of the Andes Mountains vampire
bats are native to Peru the 500 years
ago settlers imported an ideal food
source cattle and as the number of
livestock increases and spreads across
the country so too does the population
of vampire bats today large colonies
thrive near areas devoted to ranching
yet despite the burgeoning bat
population it’s rare for people living
in these agricultural areas to become
infected with rabies rabies is a
frightening and deadly disease the
classic form of the disease turns even
docile creatures into aggressors that
foam at the mouth but the strain found
in vampire bats is different it’s known
as paralytic or dumb rabies causing
disorientation muscle weakness and
eventually death
to learn more he must turn the tables
this time it’s a human taking blood from
a vampire working at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention or the
CDC in Atlanta
Streicher adds a lab strain of the
rabies virus to blood samples he
collected from vampire bats in Peru
after an incubation period the test
results will show which bats had been
exposed to the rabies under the
microscope fluorescent green dye
indicates no antibodies present meaning
the bat was free of disease but if the
results come back clear the bat has
antibodies and striker knows the bat was
exposed to rabies in the recent past
this is an important test for us because
it allows us to first determine whether
the virus is present or absent in a bat
population finally we can ask them
questions at the population level
specifically asking things like as you
have more livestock in a given area do
you see a higher proportion of bats that
have been exposed to this virus
preliminary results indicate that
vampire bats from agricultural areas may
actually have a higher rate of infection
than do bats from other parts of the
country so why then to so few people who
live near cattle ranches fall ill with
rabies if there are so many bats around
infected with the disease Stryker
believes that the livestock act as a
buffer bats prefer passive herds to
people reducing the attacks on the
people
but as vampire bat populations increase
and more lifestyle become infected this
could pose a greater rabies threat to
people in the future the same theory may
explain why human rabies is more common
in Peru’s Amazon rainforest here
developments such as logging mining and
road construction is wiped out vast
tracts of habitat and reduced wildlife
populations and since there’s not much
livestock in this area the bats turn to
another food source humans there may be
fewer infected bats but they bite people
more frequently could this be why the
disease is far more common here than in
the Andes there’s much more to learn
about how widespread rabies is among the
countries bat population what we don’t
know is how this disease is persisting
in the vampire bat so we and as a poor
load of that we don’t know where it is a
bit of our bats so again much more
widespread potentially it’s all it’s
always present these populations
striker will continue to collect data
hoping his research will eventually help
predict where people will need to be
vaccinated the more he learns about this
frightening disease the better the
chance we may someday be able to control
it sponsored by National Geographic
mission programs taking science and
exploration into the new millennium
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