Disease-carrying bats to be tracked

[geovalin]

Brent Crane

Scientists are attaching tracking devices to a colony of flying foxes near Phnom Penh in a bid to prevent a possible outbreak of a deadly virus.

The ongoing TeleNipah Project, which began on April 18, is the first of its kind in Cambodia, said project coordinator Julien Cappelle, a disease ecologist from France who has studied bats here for four years.

“We are monitoring a colony of flying foxes to get an idea of the interface between the bats and people,” Cappelle said yesterday. “These bats can be reservoirs of nipah virus, which can infect people and domestic animals.”

read more http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/disease-carrying-bats-be-tracked

[ggt]

They need to consider monitoring the female ding-bats that continue to infect the public once they contract VD...tracking them and keeping them off the street until they have been deemed disease free by a MD...would help relieve some of the spread of sex-related illnesses...