Roasted or fried bats have been eat up in West Africa for millennia and their cave play a big role in some religious activities . But bats server 12 of pathogens that may have the potential to taint humans – let in virus that make rabies , SARS , and Ebola . According to new survey results in rural Ghana , contact with squash racquet befall often and in many ways . The findings were print inEmerging infective Diseases .
To prevent chiropteran - relate zoonotic diseases – those that jumpstart from creature to humans – researchers want to know how often and why human being and bats interact . But there are only a few published quantitative records , and most of these are n’t specific to Africa .
To comfortably understand human – bat interactions , a squad lead byChristian Drosten from the University of Bonn Medical Centreconducted in - depth interview with local drawing card and reach out questionnaires to 1,274 people living in three rural towns in Ghana between 2011 and 2012 : Kwamang , Forikrom , and Buoyem . The surrounding areas were home to several yield - eating and insectivorous cricket bat species known to persuade coronaviruses , hantaviruses and filovirus , among others .
Interactions with chiropteran , the squad find , were both frequent and diverse : middleman with bats was cover by 66 % of the respondents .
In Buoyem , for case , during the Yam Festival , men would take ladders to cave on Wednesday evenings to catch yield bats as they pass from eating , and the Nox ’s catch would be collected by the womanhood ( yam plant activities were latterly break due to chieftainship disputes and difference over possession of cave lands ) .
Over a third of the respondents say that they ’ve been bitten or scratched by bats or exposed to their urine . intimately one-half of the player impose squash racket caves frequently . And 17 % say that they come into contact with bat only in their normal bread and butter or study environs .
Bat meat is also commonly traded and sold in grocery places , and these provision routes sometimes stretch out into neighboring countries . Of the study respondent , 45.6 % have consumed bats – most of which came from cave , some from restaurants . Men and Fannie Merritt Farmer tend to consume a higher percentage of bat center . And while eating in good order cooked or smoke meat is n’t thought to spread pathogens , Scienceexplains , hunting watch and those who prepare raw nub for pulmonary tuberculosis or cut-rate sale are at hazard . Clickhereto see distinctive examples of roast bats and other situations in which human – bat striking occurs .
Further body of work will be demand to understand belief systems in rules of order to originate acceptable guidance for communities in which entry into bat cave is deliberate and bat meat trade is widespread .
[ h / tScience ]
