About This Project

Interactions between humans and bats can be both beneficial and detrimental. Habitat loss worldwide has increased human-bat contact. Bats can carry diseases that have devastating effects on livestock and human health. Many are found in South East Asia, however the presence or absence of these diseases has never been studied in Fiji. Identifying how humans and bats interact in Fiji will improve bat conservation, and benefit human health if disease is found.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Bats play an important ecological role worldwide and the population of all six species in Fiji is declining. Due to human encroachment and agricultural development, there is potentially an increase in interactions between humans and bats including guano mining, consumption, cave tourism and human-wildlife conflict.

The distribution and conservation status of all 6 species of bats in Fiji has been sporadically documented over the past 40 years. Worldwide, bats can carry zoonotic diseases and contact between people and bats increases with human population expansion. We aim to provide a baseline investigation of the interactions and contact between people and bats in Fiji. We will also explore the prevalence of certain pathogens in Fijian bats through faecal and urine analysis.

What is the significance of this project?

We know that humans and bats interact in Fiji but what we don’t know how frequently or how intensely these interactions happen. Obtaining this information will give us a detailed understanding of the risk of disease posed by each interaction type (eg. Hunting, eating, guano mining, cave tourism).

One Health has a focus on diseases carried by bats as there can be devastating impacts of these diseases. We aim to contribute data to update advice regarding disease status in Fiji and public health information.

The minimally invasive method of sampling urine and faeces can also be used as a platform for future research.

What are the goals of the project?

The first aim is to quantify the interactions and contact between people (both local and tourist population) and bats by surveying communities around known bat habitats and roosts as well as surveying tourists visiting known bat habitats and roosts (eg. caves).

The second aim is to provide a baseline of disease prevalence of potentially zoonotic diseases in bats in Fiji. Targeted disease testing of pooled urine and faecal samples for paramyxovirus, coronavirus, Leptospira and histoplasma from bat species known to be consumed or where interactions with humans occur. The sampling method of below roost collection will eliminate handling of animals and decrease any negative impacts on the animals. The testing will be performed at Hopkirk Institute, New Zealand.