Quantifying the burden of vampire bat rabies in Peruvian livestock.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Knowledge of infectious disease burden is necessary to appropriately allocate resources for prevention and control. In Latin America, rabies is among the most important zoonoses for human health and agriculture, but the burden of disease attributed to its main reservoir, the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), remains uncertain.

Methodology/principal findings

We used questionnaires to quantify under-reporting of livestock deaths across 40 agricultural communities with differing access to health resources and epidemiological histories of vampire bat rabies (VBR) in the regions of Apurimac, Ayacucho and Cusco in southern Peru. Farmers who believed VBR was absent from their communities were one third as likely to report livestock deaths from disease as those who

SUBMITTER: Benavides JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5739383 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature