Rabid Bat Removed from Villas Home

VILLAS — A family residing in a residence on Arbor Road required rabies shots after a rabid bat was removed from their home.
Lower Township Animal Control Officer Don Montgomery told the Herald he received a call for a bat inside a home. He said he could not locate the bat initially but returned the next day at 6 a.m., trapped the bat and sent it to the state Health Department for testing. It was confirmed the bat had rabies.
The entire family including a 14-month old child received rabies shots.
Montgomery said it is very difficult to determine if a person has been bitten by a bat. He said their teeth are very fine and don’t leave a large mark.
“It’s not like a dog or a cat that leaves a puncture,” said Montgomery.
He said the site of a bite may show some swelling but it could be mistaken for a spider bite.
“I would recommend anyone that has a bat in their house, not to just scoot it out the door because if it’s in your living quarters, the chances of it biting you are pretty good,” said Montgomery. “Even if it doesn’t bite anybody, just being exposed to it, you should seek treatment.”
Rabies can also occur when infected saliva from a rabid animal contaminates an open wound (one which was bleeding within the past 24 hours), a scratch or skin abrasion, or a mucous membrane, according to the state Health Department.
In addition to saliva and the salivary glands, tissues and fluid of the central nervous system (i.e., brain and spinal cord) contain high amounts of the virus. Virus is rarely found in other body organs and fluids.
People cannot get rabies by just petting an animal or even by getting saliva contaminated with rabies virus onto their intact skin. In order for them to get rabies, the virus must come in contact with a recent wound or break in the skin or the virus must get onto their mucous membranes (such as into the eye or mouth). However, any physical contact with a bat is considered a possible exposure to the rabies virus and should be carefully evaluated for the post-exposure rabies treatment.
Bats can enter a home through a space as small as a quarter, said Montgomery.
He retrieved a bat from a home in Cape May Beach last week but it tested negative for rabies.
According to the state Health Department, two kinds of bats in our area are often found roosting in colonies inside buildings, the big brown and little brown bats.
The big brown bat, large with a wingspread of about 14 inches, is our most common species. Colonies of up to 200 individuals return each spring to thousands of homes and other buildings in New Jersey.
The big brown bat accounts for over 75 percent of the bat contacts with people and pets and is the bat most often tested for rabies.
The little brown bat is also quite common in homes during the spring and summer, and large numbers hibernate in abandoned iron mines. However, the number of human and animal exposures, and the number of little brown bats found to be rabid, are much less than for the big brown bat.
The state Health Department advises the only permanent method to get rid of bats from a home and keep them out is to exclude them by bat proofing. There are no chemicals registered in New Jersey for killing bats, and the use of unregistered pesticides only increases the chances that children and pets will came in contact with sick bats.
Bats often roost in dark, undisturbed areas, such as attics and wall spaces. The entry points are often near the roof edge, such as under the eaves, soffits or loose boards, openings in the roof or vents, or crevices around the chimney. Sometimes bats will roost behind shutters or under boards without entering the home.
While the objective is to seal off all of the actual and potential bat entry points, care must be taken to follow the correct procedures to avoid blocking the bats inside the roost.
Sometimes the only evidence of the presence of bats in a building will be an accumulation of droppings in one area of the attic, or droppings and rub marks on siding at the bat entry opening.
To confirm their presence and locate the openings used by bats’ in the warmer months, observe from the outside for bats leaving in the evening, from one-half hour before until one-half hour after sundown. For more details on bat-proofing your home, see http://www.state.nj.us/health/cd/bats.htm