Abstract
Pteropus bats are commonly infected with Nipah virus, but show no signs of illness. Human Nipah outbreaks in Bangladesh coincide with the date palm sap harvesting season. In epidemiologic studies, drinking raw date palm sap is a risk factor for human Nipah infection. We conducted a study to evaluate bats’ access to date palm sap. We mounted infrared cameras that silently captured images upon detection of motion on date palm trees from 5:00 pm to 6:00 am. Additionally, we placed two locally used preventative techniques, bamboo skirts and lime (CaCO3) smeared on date palm trees to assess their effectiveness in preventing bats access to sap. Out of 20 camera-nights of observations, 14 identified 132 visits of bats around the tree, 91 to the shaved surface of the tree where the sap flow originates, 4 at the stream of sap moving toward the collection pot, and no bats at the tap or on the collection pots; the remaining 6 camera-nights recorded no visits. Of the preventative techniques, the bamboo skirt placed for four camera-nights prevented bats access to sap. This study confirmed that bats commonly visited date palm trees and physically contacted the sap collected for human consumption. This is further evidence that date palm sap is an important link between Nipah virus in bats and Nipah virus in humans. Efforts that prevent bat access to the shaved surface and the sap stream of the tree could reduce Nipah spillovers to the human population.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Inclusion of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by ICDDR,B, by CDC or the Department of Health and Human Services.
References
Aidoo KE, Nout MJ, Sarkar PK (2006) Occurrence and function of yeasts in Asian indigenous fermented foods. FEMS Yeast Research 6:30–39
Banack SA (1998) Diet selection and resource use by flying foxes (genus Pteropus). Ecology 79:1949–1967
Bates PJJ, Harrison DL (1997) Bats of the Indian Subcontinent, Sevenoaks, UK: Harrison Zoological Museum Publications, 258 pp
Bonett DG, Price RM (2002) Statistical inference for a linear function of medians: confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and sample size requirements. Psychological Methods 7:370–383
Chua KB, Koh CL, Hooi PS, Wee KF, Khong JH, Chua BH, et al. (2002) Isolation of Nipah virus from Malaysian Island flying-foxes. Microbes and Infection 4:145–151
Davis C (1966) Flight patterns of bats. Journal of Mammalogy 47:78–86
Epstein JH, Field HE, Luby S, Pulliam JR, Daszak P (2006) Nipah virus: impact, origins, and causes of emergence. Current Infectious Disease Report 8:59–65
Epstein JH, Prakash V, Smith CS, Daszak P, McLaughlin AB, Meehan G, et al. (2008) Henipavirus infection in fruit bats (Pteropus giganteus), India. Emerging Infectious Diseases 14:1309–1311
FAO (1993) Date palm products. FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin No. 101. http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0681e/t0681e11.htm [accessed November 1, 2010]
Goh KJ, Tan CT, Chew NK, Tan PS, Kamarulzaman A, Sarji SA, et al. (2000) Clinical features of Nipah virus encephalitis among pig farmers in Malaysia. New England Journal of Medicine 342:1229–1235
Hall LS, Richards GC (2000) Flying Foxes: Fruit and Blossom Bats, Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press
Hayman DT, Suu-Ire R, Breed AC, McEachern JA, Wang L, Wood JL, et al. (2008) Evidence of henipavirus infection in West African fruit bats. PLoS ONE 3:e2739
Homaira N, Rahman M, Hossain MJ, Epstein JH, Sultana R, Khan MS, et al. (2010) Nipah virus outbreak with person-to-person transmission in a district of Bangladesh, 2007. Epidemiology and Infection (DOI: 10.1017/S0950268810000695)
Hsu VP, Hossain MJ, Parashar UD, Ali MM, Ksiazek TG, Kuzmin I, et al. (2004) Nipah virus encephalitis reemergence, Bangladesh. Emerging Infectious Diseases 10:2082–2087
ICDDR,B (2008) Outbreaks of Nipah virus in Rajbari and Manikgonj, February 2008. Health and Science Bulletin 6:12
IUCN (2000) Red Book of Threatened Mammals of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh: IUCN—The World Conservation Union
Khan MAR (2001) Status and distribution of bats in Bangladesh with notes to their ecology. Zoo’s Print Journal 16:479-483
Kunz TH, Jones DP (2000a) Pteropus hypomelanus. Mammalian Species 639:1–6
Kunz TH, Jones DP (2000b) Pteropus vampyrus. Mammalian Species 642:1–6
Lawrence B (1939) Collections from the Philippine Islands. Mammals. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 86:28–73
Li Y, Wang J, Hickey AC, Zhang Y, Li Y, Wu Y, et al. (2008) Antibodies to Nipah or Nipah-like viruses in bats, China. Emerging Infectious Diseases 14:1974–1976
Luby S, Hossain MJ, Gurley ES, Ahmed B-N, Banu S, Khan S, et al. (2009) Recurrent zoonotic transmission of Nipah virus into humans, Bangladesh, 2001–2007. Emerging Infectious Diseases 15:1229–1235
Luby SP, Rahman M, Hossain MJ, Blum LS, Husain MM, Gurley E, et al. (2006) Foodborne transmission of Nipah virus, Bangladesh. Emerging Infectious Diseases 12:1888–1894
Marshall AG (1985) Old world phytophagous bats (Megachi-roptera) and their food plants: a survey. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 83:363–369
Mitra SK, Pathak PK, Chakraborty I (2010) Potential underutilized tropical fruits of India. Acta Horticulturae (ISHS) 864:61–68. http://www.actahort.org/books/864/864_7.htm
Nahar N, Sultana R, Gurley ES, Hossain MJ, Luby SP (2010) Date palm sap collection: exploring opportunities to prevent Nipah transmission. EcoHealth (DOI: 10.1007/s10393-010-0320-3) [Online July 9, 2010]
Nowak RM, Walker EP, Kunz TH, Pierson ED (1994) Walker’s Bats of the World, Baltimore: JHU Press
Olson JG, Rupprecht C, Rollin PE, An US, Niezgoda M, Clemins T, et al. (2002) Antibodies to Nipah-like virus in bats (Pteropus lylei), Cambodia. Emerging Infectious Diseases 8:987–988
Siegel S, Castellan NJ Jr (1988) Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd ed., New York: McGraw-Hill
Singaravelan N, Marimuthu G (2004) Nectar feeding and pollen carrying from Ceiba pentandra by pteropodid bats. Journal of Mammalogy 85:1–7
Storz JF, Kunz TH (1999) Cynopterus sphinx. Mammalian Species 613:1–8
Wacharapluesadee S, Boongird K, Wanghongsa S, Ratanasetyuth N, Supavonwong P, Saengsen D, et al. (2010) A longitudinal study of the prevalence of Nipah virus in Pteropus lylei bats in Thailand: evidence for seasonal preference in disease transmission. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases 10:183–190
Wacharapluesadee S, Hemachudha T (2007) Duplex nested RT-PCR for detection of Nipah virus RNA from urine specimens of bats. Journal of Virological Methods 141:97–101
Wacharapluesadee S, Lumlertdacha B, Boongird K, Wanghongsa S, Chanhome L, Rollin P, et al. (2005) Bat Nipah virus, Thailand. Emerging Infectious Diseases 11:1949–1951
Walton R, Trowbridge BJ (1983) The use of radio-tracking in studying the foraging behaviour of the Indian flying fox (Pteropus giganteus). Journal of Zoology (London) 201:575–579
Wolff D (2006) Nectar sugar composition and volumes of 47 species of Gentianales from a southern Ecuadorian montane forest. Annals of Botany 97:767–777
Yob JM, Field H, Rashdi AM, Morrissy C, van der Heide B, Rota P, et al. (2001) Nipah virus infection in bats (order Chiroptera) in peninsular Malaysia. Emerging Infectious Diseases 7:439–441
Young PL, Halpin K, Selleck PW, Field H, Gravel JL, Kelly MA, et al. (1996) Serologic evidence for the presence in Pteropus bats of a paramyxovirus related to equine morbillivirus. Emerging Infectious Diseases 2:239–240
Acknowledgments
This research study was funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant number 5U51CI00298-04, and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR,B) grant number 00357. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC or the ICDDR,B. ICDDR,B acknowledges with gratitude the commitment of CDC to the ICDDR,B’s research efforts. The authors thank our field research officer, Dr. Shahneaz Ali Khan, and date palm sap collector, Mr. Chitta Ranjan, for their efforts in the fieldwork. The authors also thank Dorothy Southern for assistance with writing the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Salah Uddin Khan, M., Hossain, J., Gurley, E.S. et al. Use of Infrared Camera to Understand Bats’ Access to Date Palm Sap: Implications for Preventing Nipah Virus Transmission. EcoHealth 7, 517–525 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-010-0366-2
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-010-0366-2