One Health Approach in the Understanding of Possible Diseases Transmission by Fruits Bats

Abstract

About 75% of contagious diseases in the world are classified as zoonosis. One among wild animals suspected to spread the disease is bat. Bats have an important role in the spreading of viral diseases. Fruit bat is among bat species that may potentially transmit diseases to human. The transmission of diseases to human population should be associated with the ecology, behavior of bats and bat-human interaction. We observed the fruit bats ecology and behavior in their roosting sites during daytime (from sunrise to sunset) and in human villages area during night. The observation was conducted in Leuweung Sancang National Park, Garut, West Java. Bats often moved around to find a roost that meets their needs. In daytime bats hanged on cave near of beach for taking a rest and in night bats came to plantation in human villages for food. The plantation were cottonwood tree, guava tree, sapodilla tree, mango tree and rubber tree. The dominant behavior activity of bats in groups during daytime was sleeping. Other activities of bats in its group were aggression, self-grooming, wings flapping, biting, playing, fighting and maternal care. The solitary behavior of bats including sleeping and hang-relax or relaxing. The existence of bats interactions (direct contact and body fluid exchange) between individuals in the social behavior and in solitary behavior suggested a possibility of transmission of the agents among the bats such as parasite, bacteria and virus. Based on the observation, human ever had direct contact with bats such as catching and eating the bats or indirectly through contact with the bat feces and or eating the fruit eaten partly by the bats. These direct and indirect contact between human and bat may suggest a possibility of disease transmission to human.