Flying-foxes and your health

Flying-foxes, like many other wildlife species, occur year-round across much of Victoria. You may see flying-foxes quite regularly, as our towns and cities often provide reliable food sources and conditions.

It’s important to remember that flying-foxes are wild animals and should only be admired from a distance. Any native animal can be host to disease or cause injury if not treated appropriately. Flying-foxes are natural hosts to some rare but serious diseases that are transmissible to humans. However, there are simple steps you can take to avoid risk.

Advice on key health risks and what to do if contact occurs with a flying-fox can be found below. You can also find links to more detailed information. Visit Living with flying-foxes for advice on cleaning flying-fox droppings or responding to sick, injured or dead flying-foxes.

If contact occurs with a flying-fox

Do not touch or handle flying-foxes. Only trained and vaccinated people wearing appropriate personal protective equipment should handle flying-foxes.

If someone is bitten or scratched by a flying-fox, or exposed to saliva, it is very important to seek urgent medical attention regardless of any previous vaccination, the severity of the wound or whether the flying-fox appears sick.

In the event of a flying-fox bite, scratch, or exposure to saliva, you should:

• wash the wound immediately and thoroughly with soap and water for at least 15 minutes.
• after washing, apply an antiseptic with anti-viral action containing iodine or alcohol (ethanol) to all wounds if available.
• if mucous membranes (eyes, nose or mouth) are exposed to saliva, immediately and thoroughly flush with copious water.
• seek urgent medical attention as soon as possible to care for the wound and assess whether you are at risk of infection. Treatment (for example, rabies immunoglobulin and/or rabies vaccine) may be recommended to reduce infection risk.

For more information, speak with your GP, contact your Local Public Health Unit or see the Department of Health’s website.

Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV)

Australian bats, including flying-foxes and microbats, are natural hosts to a virus called Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV). ABLV is closely related to, but not the same as rabies virus. Infection rates in healthy wild populations are low, but higher in sick, injured or orphaned bats. Although ABLV is rare, you should treat all bats as if they could be carrying ABLV.

ABLV infection is a rare but serious disease that affects the central nervous system and is invariably fatal. ABLV is transmitted from infected bats to humans through bites, scratches or contact with saliva or neural tissue to broken skin or mucous membranes, such as the eyes, nose and mouth.

The best way to avoid ABLV is to not touch bats. Exposure to blood, urine or faeces is not known to transmit infection.

For more information about Australian Bat Lyssavirus, visit the Department of Health website, the Better Health Channel, Wildlife Health Australia or call your Local Public Health Unit.

Hendra virus

Flying-foxes are the natural host of Hendra virus. The virus can cause severe disease in horses, usually resulting in death. Infection in humans is very rare, with most cases occurring in Queensland and northern New South Wales in people who have had close contact with infected horses. Hendra virus infection can be serious and fatal in humans.

All parts of Australia where flying-foxes and horses co-exist are considered to be at risk of Hendra virus spillover.  It is likely that horses become infected by eating pasture and feed contaminated with urine, faeces, saliva or birthing products from infected flying-foxes.

Hendra virus is not easily transmitted to humans. Hendra virus is transmitted to people through close contact with infected horses or their body fluids. To date, no human-to-human, human-to-horse or flying-fox-to-human transmission of Hendra virus has been documented.

Hendra disease has not yet been detected in Victoria, but precautions should always be taken in areas where there are flying-fox populations in close proximity with horses. Vaccination is available for horses and has been proven to protect horses from infection.

It is important to keep pet or horse food and water bins away from under or near trees. Infection can also occur through contact with flying-fox saliva, such as a horse eating or coming into contact with partially chewed fruit or flowers.

To find out more about Hendra virus visit the Department of Health website, the Better Health Channel or Wildlife Health Australia.

For more information about managing risk of Hendra virus to horses and horse owners, visit the Agriculture Victoria website.

Pets

Immediately contact the Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888, your vet, or your local Agriculture Victoria Animal Health staff if:

• you find your pet or horse in contact with a flying-fox (or suspect it has happened)
• your animal is showing signs suggestive of ABLV infection
• you notice a sudden onset of illness in your horse or your horse dies suddenly, and your horse could have come into contact with flying foxes.

More information about pets and flying-foxes is available on Agriculture Victoria’s Australian Bat Lyssavirus and Hendra virus pages.