# How Do Bats Get Rabies?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-bats-get-rabies/254291>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 9, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-bats-get-rabies/254291 "2004-07-09T15:12:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-bats-get-rabies/254291/1 "2004-07-09T15:12:53Z")

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I recently read an article in the newspaper about a man who died from rabies he contracted from a bat. Unfortunately, the doctors didn’t know exactly what he had died from and transplanted several of his organs to other folks, but that’s another story.

My question: How would a bat contract rabies in the first place? They roost in trees, caves, holes, etc. so they’re unlikely to be easy prey for foxes, racoons, skunks and other creatures that tend to carry rabies. I assume they get if from one another, but it has to get into the bat population somehow. Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-bats-get-rabies/254291/2 "2004-07-09T15:32:15Z")

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Bat populations are the source. Aerosolized saliva contains the virus and infects other bats, just as people have been infected through corneal exposure to bat saliva in caves.

As to the chicken/egg thing, I am sure a rabies-free population of bats can have exposure via a rabid mammal attacking but not killing a bat.

Also, bats can and do survive rabies. They are the only (IIRC) species where a persistantly infected animal can exist.

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**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-bats-get-rabies/254291/3 "2004-07-09T15:44:05Z")

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Cite for the persistant rabid bat claim…from here

[http://www.who-rabies-bulletin.org/q4\_2001/contents/summary.html](http://www.who-rabies-bulletin.org/q4_2001/contents/summary.html)

> [@](#):
>
> From an article under 4.1 we learn that bats in Spain were investigated for rabies antibodies. A fairly high percentage was positive, indicating that these animals survive an infection.