Abstract
The present study quantified Desmodus rotundus population and characterized their roosts in the Andradina microregion, Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2010 and 2012, determining the effect of bat control measures on roost numbers and types and their population. From April to June 2010, professionals from the Agriculture and Livestock Defense Coordination of the State of Sao Paulo responsible for the rabies control that consists of capturing and treating vampire bats with a vampiricide paste based on Warfarin 2%, inspected 50 bat roosts registered in 12 municipalities in the Andradina microregion, northwestern Sao Paulo. In September 2012, 31 of these roosts were again surveyed by the authors of this study. The vast majority (92% and 96% in 2010 and 2012, respectively) of the roosts were characterized as artificial, e.g., abandoned houses and warehouses, house attics, culverts under highways, deactivated wells and mills, bridges, disused housings, and barns. The only natural roosts found were tree hollows. The number of roosts and the bat population in roosts decreased drastically after the measures for direct control of hematophagous bats were performed, especially the number of maternity colonies, indicating that the direct selective method had a strong impact on reducing these populations.
Highlights
There are more than a thousand species of bats, but only three are hematophagous, feeding exclusively on blood and being potential reservoirs and transmitters of the rabies virus (QUEIROZ et al, 2009; BORDIGNON et al, 2017)
From April to June 2010, professionals from the Agriculture and Livestock Defense Coordination of the State of Sao Paulo responsible for the rabies control that consists of capturing and treating vampire bats with a vampiricide paste based on Warfarin 2%, inspected 50 bat roosts registered in 12 municipalities in the Andradina microregion, northwestern São Paulo
Hematophagous bats have been systematically eliminated in Brazil since the mid-1970s as a preventive measure adopted by the National Herbivorous Rabies Control Program (Programa Nacional de Controle da Raiva dos Herbívoros, PNCRH) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento, MAPA) (BRAZIL, 2009)
Summary
There are more than a thousand species of bats, but only three are hematophagous, feeding exclusively on blood and being potential reservoirs and transmitters of the rabies virus (QUEIROZ et al, 2009; BORDIGNON et al, 2017). Rabies is one of the most important zoonosis in the world, caused by a virus of the genus Lyssavirus, family Rhabdoviridae, which is characterized by nervous symptomatology that leads to death in nearly 100% of the cases. It has been described for at least four millennia, it is still considered as a neglected disease in several parts of the world (VIGILATO et al, 2013), causing a significant economic impact on public health and veterinary medicine (RUPPRECHT, 2009; BANYARD et al, 2014).
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