Papua New Guinea is undertaking a series of bat surveillance exercises to identify any potential disease threat to humans.
The exercises are being headed by the newly established Zoonoses and Neglected Diseases section of the Institute of Medical Research.
The section head, Dr Yazid Abdad, says it has been well documented that bats are carriers of diseases that have recently caused epidemics, such as coronaviruses like SARS, influenza and rabies. He says trapping the bats will not be difficult.
He told Don Wiseman they are not an elusive animal but have a close relationship with Papua New Guineans.
YAZID ABDAD: Other than part of their folklore and legends, bats and flying foxes do make up part of the diet of certain groups of Papua New Guineans, especially on the coast. So we can't get colonies of bats near human habitation, especially near cities and towns. And theyhave to be of a certain size so that when we do collect samples from the bats and kill them in a process it's not going to affect the colony from recovering.
DON WISEMAN: What other sorts of things do you think you might find out about the bats of PNG?
YA: Currently, we're collecting some extra data with regards to their behaviours in certain areas? Some of the bats that I've collected in the past are undescribed and relatively new to science, as well. So that kind of information. Not just looking at disease carriage, but looking at ecological and habitat data, rather than just looking at viral diseases we'll be looking at bacterial diseases, fungal diseases that humans can acquire from bats, and also borne diseases such as disease passed on from bat lice and flies that can also affect humans and other animals.
DW: If the bats are one of the food sources this is the way in which any infection or any virus is transmitted?
YA: Yes, that is a possibility. Ingestion of bats is one of the methods of contracting diseases from bats. There are various other ways, such as direct contact. When a bat comes into contact with a human, such as a bite or a claw mark. Also indirect contact via other animals or other insects that have bitten the bat and then passed it on to humans, and also contamination of surfaces with bat saliva, bat urine and bat guano.
DW: If you conclude that, in fact, PNG bats are carrying some of these neglected diseases, your hope, is that this will lead to the availability of vacccines in PNG and that sort of thing?
YA: Yes. If it's a sustainable way of preventing disease I think the most important thing is education among the communities that have got close contact with the bats and also working closely with the department of health on policies. We don't want to cause fear, especially among the communities. We want to educate them on processing the bat meat and also contact with the bats. There'll probably be a better way of reducing the risk of transmission of disease.