nmp wrote:
Floyd L. Davidson wrote:

nmp wrote:
Terry wrote:
I hope your shots are up to date.

I hardly see a reason for that.

The US Department for Health and Social Services operates the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC), which has a very interesting article on bats
and rabies:

http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/bats.html

Here are two short quotes:

"Most of the recent human rabies cases in the United States have been
caused by rabies virus from bats."

"... any bat that is active by day, is found in a place where bats are
not usually seen (for example, in a room in your home or on the lawn),
or is unable to fly, is far more likely than others to be rabid."

OK, far more likely (I would not argue your CDC). But how much more
likely exactly? It does not say.

I do admit, after a bit of reading (wikipedia and such), that perhaps
bats in the Americas (and a few other regions) are indeed "more likely"
to have (and transmit) rabies. Compared to other regions, that is.

You've totally missed the point. There is nothing there
comparing regions. It just says, without equivocation,
that bats are a *very* *common* vector for human rabies.
In the US it happens to be the most common (for a reason,
as explained below).

If you do even more research what you'll find is that
bats are one of the several types of animals in which
rabies is very commonly endemic. That means in any
given population it is always present (and is not
necessarily always fatal for every animal which has it).

Of course it is your pets that should have up to date rabies shots...

Rabies kills people, too.

Pre-exposure human rabies vaccination is not routine. On
the other hand, for people like a veterinarian or a
researcher working with bats, they would in fact get a
pre-exposure vaccination.

Regardless of that, around the world 99% of human rabies
cases are the result of contact with rabid dogs. That
is not true in the US because a dogs commonly receive a
rabies vaccine...

The CDC article seems very well balanced. At least it says that not all

I cited that particular article for good reason.

bats have rabies and the method they describe to catch bats in your house
is quite humane.

They recommend that bats caught in your home be tested
for rabies. The bat does not survive that test...

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)