In the fictional links he drew between immortal vampires and bats, Dracula creator Bram Stoker may have had one thing right.
"Maybe it's all in the blood," says Emma Teeling, a geneticist studying the exceptional longevity of bats in the hope of discovering benefits for humans.
The University College Dublin researcher works with the charity Bretagne Vivante to study bats living in rural churches and schools in Brittany, western France.
"We're taking a little bit of blood, but rather than us being the vampires to the bats we're making them give us their secrets," she says.
Those secrets are tantalising.
Bats not only live longer than other animals of their size, they also stay healthy longer and can harbour pathogens like Ebola or coronaviruses without getting sick.
Teeling, who outlined her research to AFP in an interview reproduced here in edited form, focuses on long-lived Greater Mouse-eared bats.
The aim is to discover the key to longer, healthier lives for people.
Bats. You have hit a really sore spot there. I have just sent most of the day trying to find out more about bats and the viruses they carry. I was bitten on my back 10 days ago by something while I was asleep . I thought it was multiple stings from a wasp. Now bat bites apparently don't show and fade very quickly . This hasn't faded and still hurts to touch but I ended up in A&E. I have had a bat living in the wooden cladding directly above the bedroom window for a number of years . Hadn't seen it but droppings appeared on windowsill beneath looking like mouse droppings ,and apparently because they consist of insect parts are different in consistency and crumble. Referred to local bat group for info then . So I have now ended up being sent to A&E this week just in case it was a bat bite . Hadn't thought about bats until joking mentioned vampires. (My sister lives in Whitby which is where Dracula was written and they make a lot of this association with vampire bats). But bats do carry lots of viruses in this country as well. In US a lot of creatures can carry it. If a bat bite is suspected then you should have treatment immediately. If you find a bat in the room then you should be treated as it can infect you with its saliva without biting . I didn't suspect it and didnt look, and found this out too late. Nothing appeared later when I stripped the bed clothes routinely to wash them. But it has just created another worry- covid, and rabies. It is rare to be bitten and if you think about it bats always lived in churches . The chapel across the road used to have them and they used to be seen here outside my house in the evenings catching insects. Didn't bother us. While my problem isnt thought to be due to bats I am not so happy now about having them where they can accidentally get close. Re your post -Bats are getting bad press at present so maybe this wil,l if proved , go some way to counteract it .
From what I can gather Rabies, which is very rare, is of primary concern. Hopefully it is of no consequence if it really was a bat bite. Also hopefully not a bite from a horsefly, which can be extremely painful.
Yes you are quite right about their persecution, and hope that like sharks, are not driven close to extinction by bad publicity.
It's not a common bite / sting because the senior nurse there didn't recognise it . She was termed advanced on her badge. She knew a lot .You usually find the senior nurses know more than the doctors. . I only mentioned bats a week later when I remembered the one living in the cladding, and then nobody knew anything , of course. Doesn't hurt unless touched so not horsefly. Trouble is I always have this need to know !
I know that need, about everything and any subject. It is like an itch that will not go away.
I’m sitting in my living room right now watching the bats swoop around the garden. I can’t stand the things! But I’m glad they might prove to have some purpose
No bats here but there were where we used to live. They’d get in the house sometimes and leave droppings or knock things down. I heard if you throw a white sheet (not sheep) in the air, the bat would fly under and away. So I used to throw a sheet and the bat flew out the open window. I don’t know if it worked other than the bat thinking it’s in a house with a weird person who throws sheets, so better just leave 🤷♀️
I just put an open box of chocolates on the floor. It tipped over. A little mouse zoomed out from under my heater and into the box 🤨 I put the box, complete with mouse, outside. He can keep the chocolates, I don’t think I want them back now.
I used to love the bats flying around me at eveningtime when I lived in Perthshire. My cat caught one of them. It was so tiny, much smaller than they looked in the air. They lived in the ruined sexton's cottage next to the ruined church in our hamlet.
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