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. 2019;65(3):41.
doi: 10.1007/s10344-019-1280-8. Epub 2019 Apr 29.

Extreme temperature event and mass mortality of insectivorous bats

Mathieu Pruvot  1 , Julien Cappelle  2 , Neil Furey  3 , Vibol Hul  4 , Huy Sreang Heng  4 , Veasna Duong  4 , Philippe Dussart  4 , Paul Horwood  4   5
Affiliations

Extreme temperature event and mass mortality of insectivorous bats

Mathieu Pruvot et al. Eur J Wildl Res. 2019.

Abstract

A mass mortality event involving Chaerephon plicatus and Taphozous theobaldi bats occurred during a heat wave in April 2016 in Cambodia. This was investigated to clarify the causes of the die-off and assess the risk to public health. Field evidences, clinical signs, and gross pathology findings were consistent with a heat stress hypothesis. However, the detection of a novel bat paramyxovirus raises questions about its role as a contributing factor or a coincidental finding. Systematic documentation of bat die-offs related to extreme weather events is necessary to improve understanding of the effect of changing weather patterns on bat populations and the ecosystem services they provide.

Keywords: Bat paramyxovirus; Die-off; Extreme weather event; Heat stress; Outbreak investigation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Chaerephon plicatus female adult and pups found dead around the temple
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Arrangement and aspect of the three buildings containing bats in Phnom Bok temple
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Phylogenetic tree (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (L) gene) of the bat paramyxovirus detected in the kidney of a Taphozous theobaldi bat. The tree was generated in Geneious Pro V9 (http://www.geneious.com) using the Maximum Likelihood, Tamura-Nei model (TN93) with Gamma distribution 4 and 1000 bootstrap. The numbers next to the branches indicate the percentage of 1000 bootstrap replicates that support each phylogenetic branch. The tree is drawn to scale, with branch lengths measured in the number of substitutions per site
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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