Sick bat found at Southern Beaches Community Garden in Tugun found to be carrying deadly Lyssavirus

Health authorities have warned people they should never handle bats after members of the public came into contact with an animal carrying a deadly virus. FULL DETAILS

Health authorities have warned people they should never handle bats after concerned members of the public came in contact with an animal carrying a deadly virus.

The bat, which was found hanging low in a tree at the Southern Beaches Community Garden in Tugun on Tuesday April 11, was later found to be carrying the Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV).

Gold Coast Public Health physician Dr Vicki Slinko said anyone who had contact with the sick bat should go to their doctor urgently and ask them to contact the Public Health Unit.

“The Public Health Unit has contacted those people who reported the bat, as well as those who cared for it, to determine if they were scratched or bitten,” said Dr Slinko.

“Once the bat was rescued, it was only handled by trained and vaccinated carers.”

Dr Slinko said bats should not be handled by members of the public under any circumstances, even if they appear to be dead.

“Only people who are trained and appropriately vaccinated should handle bats.”

Health authorities have warned that only people who are properly trained and vaccinated should ever handle bats.

ABLV is related to rabies and is usually fatal if contracted by humans.

Only three cases of human infection have been recorded in Australia since ABLV was first detected in a flying fox in Ballina in 1994. However all three were in Queensland, and all three were fatal.

Queensland bat handler Patricia Padget, 39, became the world’s first victim of lyssavirus in 1996 while the second known victim, Monique Todhunter, died in 1998.

The last was an eight-year-old boy who died in February 2013 after being bitten by a bat while holidaying in the Whitsundays weeks earlier.

Surveys of wild bat populations have indicated less than one per cent of bats carry ABLV. In sick and injured bats, around seven per cent have been found to carry the virus.

Anyone who finds a sick or injured bat is urged to avoid handling the animal and contact the RSPCA on 1300 ANIMAL (1300 264 625) or a local bat care organisation.

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