Potential risk of viral transmission from flying foxes to domestic animals and humans on the southern coast of West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Flying foxes have been considered to be involved in the transmission of serious infectious diseases to humans. Using questionnaires, we aimed to determine the direct and/or indirect contacts of flying foxes in an Indonesian nature conservation area with domestic animals and humans living in the surrounding area. We surveyed 150 residents of 10 villages in West Java. Villages were classified into 3 groups: inside and/or within 1 km from the outer border of the conservation area and 1–5 km or 5–10 km away from the reserve’s outer border. Data were collected by direct interview using a structured questionnaire consisting of the respondent characteristics (age, sex and occupation); histories of contacts between flying foxes and humans, dogs and other domestic animals; and knowledge about infectious diseases, mainly rabies, in flying foxes. We found that flying foxes from the nature conservation area often enter residential areas at night to look for food, especially during the fruit season. In these residential areas, flying foxes had direct contacts with humans and a few contacts with domestic animals, especially dogs. People who encounter flying foxes seldom used personal protective equipment, such as leather gloves, goggles and caps. The residents living around the conservation area mostly had poor knowledge about flying foxes and disease transmission. This situation shows that the population in this region is at a quite high risk for contracting infectious diseases from flying foxes.

The spleen morphophysiology of fruit bats

“…The order Chiroptera is divided into two suborders: Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera (Lei & Dong, ; Teeling et al, ). Fruit bats, included in the suborder Yinpterochiroptera, are often found near residential areas (Basri et al, ). The decline of tree and fruit populations in forests, forest fires and extreme climate change often lead to the foray of fruit bats into human farming areas, especially during the fruiting season (Basri et al, ; Páez, Restif, Eby, & Plowright, ).…”

“…Fruit bats, included in the suborder Yinpterochiroptera, are often found near residential areas (Basri et al, ). The decline of tree and fruit populations in forests, forest fires and extreme climate change often lead to the foray of fruit bats into human farming areas, especially during the fruiting season (Basri et al, ; Páez, Restif, Eby, & Plowright, ). Large‐sized fruit bats, such as flying foxes, are nomadic foragers capable of flying up to 100 km from the roosting site in one night (Hengjan et al, ).…”

“…Because bats cannot swallow large amounts of food, they chew the fruit and spit out the fibre (Dobson, ). The ability of fruit bats to fly and interact with other species, including domesticated animals and humans, increases the potential for zoonotic outbreaks (Basri et al, ). Some zoonotic virus that have been serologically detected in fruit bats include paramyxovirus, herpesvirus, parvovirus, polyomavirus, coronavirus and filovirus (Anindita et al, ; Calisher et al, ; Hayman et al, ; Kobayashi et al, ; Sasaki et al, ,,; Sendow et al, ,).…”

Bats Oxidative Stress Defense

“…Bats have flying behavior to forage and roaming around the area from dusk to night (Basri et al, 2017;Hengjan et al, 2018). Bats have an extensive home range and can fly relatively far, up to hundreds of kilometers in one time (Breed, Field, Smith, Edmonston, & Meers, 2010;Hengjan et al, 2018;Norquay, Martinez-Nunez, Dubois, Monson, & Willis, 2013;Roberts, Catterall, Eby, & Kanowski, 2012).…”

Circumstances of Human–Bat interactions and risk of lyssavirus transmission in metropolitan France

“…Human-bat interactions have been studied essentially in communities hunting bats for consumption or using them for traditional medicine purpose (Anti et al, 2015;Basri et al, 2017;Rego, Zeppelini, Lopez, & Alves, 2015).Very little is known about bat exposures and their potential impact on public health in industrialized countries (Parize et al, 2018;Takumi, Lina, Van der poel, Kramps, & Van der giessen, 2009). Exposures due to direct contact with bats are considered by World Health Organization (WHO) as category III exposures and calls for immediate administration of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) including rabies immunoglobulin and vaccine to prevent rabies encephalitis (Table 1).…”