Vampire bat rabies: ecology, epidemiology and control

Abstract

Extensive surveillance in bat populations in response to recent emerging diseases has revealed that this group of mammals acts as a reservoir for a large range of viruses. However, the oldest known association between a zoonotic virus and a bat is that between rabies virus and the vampire bat. Vampire bats are only found in Latin America and their unique method of obtaining nutrition, blood-feeding or haematophagy, has only evolved in the New World. The adaptations that enable blood-feeding also make the vampire bat highly effective at transmitting rabies virus. Whether the virus was present in pre-Columbian America or was introduced is much disputed, however, the introduction of Old World livestock and associated landscape modification, which continues to the present day, has enabled vampire bat populations to increase. This in turn has provided the conditions for rabies re-emergence to threaten both livestock and human populations as vampire bats target large mammals. This review considers the ecology of the vampire bat that make it such an efficient vector for rabies, the current status of vampire-transmitted rabies and the future prospects for spread by this virus and its control.

Figure 1

Images of the common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus. (a) A close up showing the sharp incisors used to puncture the skin of prey animals; (b) a female with young in flight; (c) a small colony of D. rotundus.

Figure 2

Limits of distribution (dashed line) for all vampire bat species in Latin America.

Figure 3

Schematic of the rabies virus genome showing transcription of the five genes to form the nucleoprotein, phosphoprotein, matrix, glycoprotein and polymerase or L gene. Sections of the genome that are commonly used for phylogenetic analysis of rabies viruses are indicated: (1) Complete nucleoprotein coding sequence; (2) partial nucleoprotein coding sequence; (3) nucleoprotein-phosphoprotein intergenic region; (4) complete glycoprotein coding sequence; (5) glycoprotein-L intergenic region.

Figure 4

Distribution of rabies-affected areas ofMexico over three decades; (A) 1970s; (B) 1990s; (C) 2000s. Black indicates areas with populations of rabies-affected populations of vampire bats, grey indicatesareas with populations ofvampire bats but rabies free.