Rabies in the insectivorous bat Tadarida brasiliensis in Southeastern Brazil

This is the first recorded case of rabies in the insectivorous bat Tadarida brasiliensis in the State of S. Paulo, Southeastern Brazil. The infected bat was found in the afternoon while hanging on the internal wall of an urban building. This observation reinforces the notion as to the caution one must exercise regarding bats found in unusual situations.

Among insectivorous bats, several species of the family Molossidae are gregarious and inhabit urban areas of tropical and temperate regions of the world.Eighteen species of this family have been recorded in Brazil 8 , most of them being of frequent occurrence in urban areas.The presence of these bats in this kind of environment may be inconvenient for people due to their presence around houses, inside attics and roofs, and the accumulation of feces or transmission of diseases 3 .The main disease known to be associated with bats is rabies 1,3,4 and 27 species have already presented positive test results for it in Brazil 3,7 .
In the afternoon of February 11th, 1996, it was captured a specimen inside a building belonging to the State University of S. Paulo (UNESP) in Botucatu (48º26'W, 22 o 52'S), State of S. Paulo, Southeastern Brazil.The bat was a non-reproductive adult male Tadarida brasiliensis (Molossidae) that was hanging upside down on a wall at a height of 1.5 m (Fig. ).Despite the fact that some people were disturbing it, the bat remained quiet and motionless, showing no aggressive beha vior.The specimen was photographed and collected at 15:00h -an unusual place and time for a bat to be found and the suspicion was that it was sick, probably with rabies, a suspicion also supported by its behavior, since motionlessness suggests muscle paralysis due to rabies.Uieda et al. 6 compiled 19 cases of rabid-infected bats found in unusual situations in urban areas a list of and, according to the authors, muscle paralysis seems to be frequent.Bauer and Crusius 2 reported a paralytic and rabid specimen of Tadarida brasiliensis found inside a house in S. Leopoldo, Southern Brazil.That case seems to be similar to this one found in Botucatu.
The apparently sick animal was sacrificed and sent for laboratorial rabies exams at the "Departamento de Higiene Veterinária e Saúde Pública, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, UNESP".The diagnosis was positive by both the direct immunofluorescence and the animal inoculation tests.This finding adds to the cautionary note made by several authors 1,3,4,6 that people must be careful with bats found in unusual situations.
In the ligth of its gregarious habits and its roosting mainly in artificial shelters, a search was made for other individuals of T. brasiliensis in that same building but was unsuccessful.It seemed that the specimen must have been living in some other building nearby and that, due to its illness, had been unable to find its way back.No other infected specimens were found in the same place.These data will be useful in attempting to understand rabies infection in this species in a town of the size of Botucatu (c.100,000 inhabitants).

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
To Miriam M. Hayashi and Glaucia A. Morelli for field assistance, Drs.Luiz Carlos de Souza and Helio Langoni for the rabies exams of the bat.

Figure
Figure.A rabid specimen of the insectivorous bat Tadarida brasiliensis while hanging on an internal wall of a building from the urban area of Botucatu, S.Paulo, Brazil.From knowledge of the author this is the first picture of a live rabid bat found under natural rabies infection.