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Disease ecology

A batty concept goes viral

A field test suggests that orally ingestible, spreadable vaccines to combat rabies will transmit widely among vampire bats in the wild, offering a more humane — and effective — alternative to the bat culling practiced throughout Latin America today.

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Fig. 1: Population-level susceptibility to rabies is elevated under culling versus spreadable vaccine interventions.

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Correspondence to Cara E. Brook.

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Brook, C.E. A batty concept goes viral. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 1620–1621 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-1045-5

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