SEABCRU » disease

Flying Fox Protocols and Disease Guidelines in Bahasa Indonesia

Susan Tsang — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 20:41:45 +0000

To continue from the great work done at the Cambodian FF workshop, the roost count data sheets and protocols, along with the disease guidelines have now all been translated into Indonesian. They are now available in the resources section. Thanks to Sheherazade and Felicia Lasmana for their work on it!

Perception of bat-borne rabies risk in Thailand

Paul Racey — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:43:23 +0000

Rabies in humans has declined ten-fold in Thailand in the last twenty years because of the use of vaccines in the treatment of dog bites. So awareness about rabies, at least in dogs, must be high. It is disappointing therefore that the recent paper by Robertson et al in PLoS Neglected tropical diseases indicates a lack of awareness of ways of contracting rabies among those coming into contact with bats, especially guano miners

Robertson K, Lumlertdacha B, Franka R, Petersen B, Bhengsri S, et al. (2011) Rabies-Related Knowledge and Practices among Persons at Risk of Bat Exposures in Thailand. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5(6): e1054. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001054

Hunting of flying foxes and perception of disease risk in Indonesian Borneo

Paul Racey — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:48:48 +0000

In an important paper in press in Biological Conservation, Mark Harrison and colleagues describe how questionnaire surveys of hunters and market vendors in Central Kalimantan revealed decreasing availability of flying foxes, from which it can be inferred that populations are declining. This trend looks likely to continue and Kalimantan, like other parts of the Old World tropics, will lose the ecological services that these bats provide. They are purchased for food and in the mistaken belief that their consumption relieves the symptoms of asthma. Hunters and vendors are frequently bitten and are unaware of the risks of contracting diseases from the bats.

Mark E. Harrison, Susan M Cheyne, Fiteria Darma, Dwi Angan Ribowo, Suwido H. Limin, Matthew J. Struebig (2011). Hunting of flying foxes and perception of disease risk in Indonesian Borneo. Biological Conservation.

Email M.J.Struebig@kent.ac.uk for a copy.

This is the first publication from a series of recent research projects in the Old World tropics investigating hunters of bats and other bushmeat species and their vendors and how the supply chain operates. Another has been completed in Ghana with reference to Eidolon helvum and another nears completion in Madagascar. A study in Brazzaville in which I was involved appeared recently in two adjacent papers by Robert Mbete and colleagues in the on-line journal Tropical Conservation Science (which you can download for free here and here). The surprising aspect of this study is the absence of bats from the comprehensive list of bushmeat consumed, despite direct evidence of bat consumption in Congo from others sources. So it looks as if the supply chain for bats differs from that for other kinds of bushmeat.

Note from Tigga: Mark Harrison and his team have made revised versions of the questionnaires available – please see the attachments, and the notes that go with them. They are happy for people to use and adapt, but please be sure to cite them!

Hunting survey methods and questionnaire – Jul 2011 – for SEABCRU

METODE SURVEY PENJUALAN KELELEWAR – Jul 2011 – for SEABCRU

METODE SURVEY PERBURUAN KELELAWAR BESAR – Jul 2011 – for SEABCRU

Notes for website on Q’airre use