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Culling vampire bats failed to beat rabies — and made the problem worse

The timing of the cull makes all the difference.
  1. Jude Coleman
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Latin American governments’ decades-long campaign of killing vampire bats to reduce rabies outbreaks has the opposite effect, a study in Peru has found. Reactive culling, which takes place after the disease is already present, can accelerate the spread of the virus, according to a paper published today in Science Advances1.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00712-y

References

  1. Viana, M. et al. Sci. Adv. 9, eadd7437 (2023).

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  2. Blackwood, J. C., Streicker, D. G., Altizer, S. & Rohani, P. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 20837–20842 (2013).

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  3. Streicker, D. G. et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 279, 3384–3392 (2012).

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