Untersuchungen an Fledermaustodfunden zum Vorkommen der Fledermaustollwut in Deutschland

Investigations of diseased bats for bat rabies surveillance in Germany. Systematic bat rabies surveillance is restricted due to the protected status of European bats. Here we present a study on passive surveillance with more than 3,000 tested bats from most of the German federal states. While 8% of the samples could not be investigated, the percentage of positive animals was 1.2%. Both EBLV-1 and -2 were detected among the samples. Despite the high number of investigated bats, unfortunately, the samples were not homogenously distributed. Future attempts should direct to establish structures in all federal states that allow archiving and testing of dead found bats and thus fulfilling the requirements as stipuated in the EUROBATS agreement.