Discovery of Rabid Bat Raises Officials’ Concern

A rabid bat discovered in a Westside backyard triggered a flurry of concerns Tuesday among county officials over a bat census to be conducted in Topanga Canyon.

Concerned that bat counters might be exposed to rabies dangers, county health officials warned the Department of Public Works and other county officials.

But biologists argued that there is no danger to the public or the bat census-takers. They said safety issues for the May 17 tally have already been discussed with volunteers, who will only be counting--not touching--the flying mammals.

Meanwhile, a dozen people, mostly children, began receiving a series of shots Tuesday to prevent rabies after they handled a bat infected with the deadly virus and found in the backyard of a West Los Angeles home.

The bat, which appeared sick, was discovered by a child last Thursday and killed by the youngster’s father, who flung it against a wall and left it in the bushes. Children at a christening party two days later retrieved the dead bat and made a game of tossing it from one to another, Los Angeles County health officials reported.

It was only by a stroke of good luck that a parent mentioned the incident to a family physician on Monday, officials said. The physician, realizing the bat could have been rabid, reported the contact to county officials.

Investigators from the county Department of Health Services found the bat and determined Tuesday that it was rabid.

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While none of the children or adults were bitten by the bat, health officials said the anti-rabies series is being administered as a precaution because the disease is usually transmitted merely through contact with the animal’s saliva or body fluids. An actual bite was determined as the cause in only 1 of 19 of the most recent cases of human rabies traceable to bats, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The incident is the first in the county this year in which a known rabid animal came in contact with humans, said Dr. C. Patrick Ryan, the department’s chief of veterinary public health. “We were lucky to get the bat to test,” he said. The animal is being sent for further testing to the federal disease control headquarters in Atlanta, Ga.

Ryan alerted officials working on the Topanga bat project after he learned the diagnosis of the disease in the Westside bat. He said he was concerned that census workers be told to wear long-sleeved clothing and heavy gloves as protection from possible infection.

But conservation biologist Rosi Dagit, who will lead the census, said the warnings are unnecessary. “You count the bats, you don’t touch them,” said Dagit, who is a state representative with the Santa Monica Mountains Resource Conservation District.

“A creature that can catch a mosquito while flying at 10-15 mph is quite able to avoid interacting with a human,” she wrote in an angry letter Tuesday to Dave Yamahara, county public works division engineer.

The canyon’s bats are being counted as part of a county project to install a new concrete bridge to replace an aged wooden bridge, beneath which a flock of bats now sleeps the day away, dangling upside down from the timbers. The new bridge will be outfitted with wooden “bat crevices” to provide the bats with a replacement home.

The animals will be relocated to temporary bat houses until construction is completed. The bat census and provision of new homes for them is the first project of its kind by the county public works department.

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About 10% to 15% of bats tested by county health officials are infected with the virus, said Dr. Laurene Mascola, chief of acute communicable disease control. However, she said, that is because it is diseased animals are most likely to be brought to the department’s attention.

“Although bats are excellent for the environment, they do have the possibility of carrying the rabies virus,” she said. “It is important that you don’t touch bats, that you call the health department to come and capture a bat, and if someone does have to handle it, that they wear heavy gloves or use an extended shovel,” Mascola said.

Conservationists said the danger of contracting rabies from bats is exaggerated. Bat biologist Diana Simons, a consultant for the U.S. Forest Service, estimated that less than one-half of 1% of bats have rabies. But she, too, warned that people not touch the creatures.

“Watching bats do the normal bat thing is not a threat to anyone; playing with an animal lying on the ground is a threat,” said Simons, who will help direct the Topanga count.

“The census under the bridge is going to be a completely non-contact enterprise.”

Nationally, about 7,000 animals, most of them wild, are diagnosed each year as having the disease. Although rabies is rare in humans, more than 22,000 people each year receive treatment to prevent it following an exposure, according to the national disease control center.

While treatment once required painful shots administered into the stomach, modern treatment consists of a series of six less painful injections.