Controlling the population of vampire bats by using poison or even explosives has been a decades-old way of trying to curb the spread of rabies in Latin America, but new research suggests culling these bat colonies does little to stem the deadly virus.
Scientists from the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, and the University of Georgia, in Athens, combined results from a long-term vampire bat field study, research on captive vampire bats and computer models of rabies transmission, and found that culling bat populations does not stop the rabies virus. In some cases, the researchers found, controlling bat colonies may actually increase the spread of rabies by provoking infected bats to seek refuge in other, nearby colonies.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!