Fruit Bat

Fig. 1.3 Bats Uniform absence (-) in Fruit Bats (left Pteropodidae) uniform presence (+) in Leaf-nosed (Phyllostomatidae) variable (-/+) in other Small-Bat families.

It is normally found only in Australia. The natural reservoir is fruit bats (Pteropus species), however, there is no evidence of direct transmission from bats to humans. Special precautions should be taken when examining a horse suspected of having the disease or performing a necropsy. Although it is not considered highly communicable, this is an enhanced biosafety level 3 agent. 

Fruit bats, Pteropus sp. Brisbane, Australia found dead or traumatized urban vs. non-urban areas ... 

Hariono, B., J. Ng, and R.H. Sutton. 1993. Lead concentrations in tissues of fruit bats (Pteropus sp.) in urban and non-urban locations. Wildl. Res. 20 315-320. 

Neotropical bats Desmodus rotundus, Artibeus literatus, and Phyllostomus discolor) are very sensitive to butanoic acid their detection threshold lies between 1.5 x 10 ° and 1.5 x 10 mol/1 (Schmidt, 1975). The short-tailed fruit bat Carollia perspicillata) has detection thresholds for 18 odorants ranging from 3.6 x 10 to 2.7 X 10 ° molecules/cm air. The animals were most sensitive to fruit-typical compounds such as ethyl butyrate (5.4 x 10 °molecules/cm ), w-pentyl acetate (2.8 X 10 °molecules/cm ), andlinalool(1.8 x 10 molecules/cm ), suggesting nutritional specialization of chemoreception (Laska, 1990). The bats increased their respiration rate from a basal rate of 2-4 Hz to as much as 12 Hz when confronted with an odor of high concentration. 

A complex biologically relevant odor, such as that of a fruit for fruit bats, may require fewer molecules overall for detection than each of its single components alone (Laska 1990 Laska and Hudson, 1991). Vampire bats (P/asmodws... 

Laska, M. (1990). Olfectory sensitivity to food odor components in the short-tail fruit bat,... 

Toxicology. Fruit bats linked to mystery disease. Science 296,24. 

Until the 20th century, it was thought that scurvy was confined to humans. Most plants and animals have the ability to synthesize ascorbic acid, but it was discovered that a limited number of animals, including primates, guinea pigs, the Indian fruit bat, and trout, also lack the ability to produce ascorbic acid. In vertebrates, ascorbic acid is made in the fiver from glucose in a four-step process. Each step requires a specific enzyme and humans lack the enzyme required for the last step, gulonolactone oxidase. 

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a vitamin for primates, guinea-pigs, and fruit bats, but other mammals can make it for themselves. 

The ability to synthesise ascorbic acid from glucose is absent in a small group of animal species that include man, primates, the guinea pig and the fruit-bat this is due to the absence of the gene that codes for one of the enzymes required for ascorbate synthesis. These species are therefore dependent on an external source of the vitamin in their diet and it is needed as a cofactor for several hydroxylase enzymes, notably the iron-dependent proline and lysine hydroxylases and the copper-dependent dopamine-(3-hydroxylase the function of ascorbate in these enzymes is likely to be its ability to keep the metal in the reduced form which is necessary for hydroxylation. The ability of ascorbate to reduce Fe3+ to Fe2+ is important in promoting the gastrointestinal uptake of iron and for its release from the iron store ferritin. 

The megaloblastic response to vitamin B12 deficiency seems to be unique to human beings deficient animals develop neuropathy, but have unimpaired hemopoeisis. It may be that human beings are more reliant on the de novo synthesis of TMP and less able to salvage it from DNA breakdown than other species. The normal suppression of the incorporation of [ H] thymidine into DNA by added dUMP (Section 10.3.3.3) is less than 3% in the fruit bat, 23% in the rat, and 65% in humans. 

Although most animal species can synthesize vitamin C, humans, guinea pigs, the Indian fruit bat, and the bulbul bird must obtain this vitamin from dietary sources. Citrus fruits, strawberries, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes are all excellent sources of vitamin C. 

Only man (and other primates), guinea-pigs, the Indian fruit bat and the red-vented bulbul (a bird) get scurvy other animals are able to synthesise ascorbic acid for themselves. 

Ascorbic acid is an unusual vitamin in that it can be synthesized by most mammals however, it cannot be made by humans, primates, guinea pigs, and fruit bats. Ascorbic acid is synthesized from glucose in a six-step pathway Mammals that cannot make the vitamin lack the last enzyme of this pathway, gulonolactone oxidase. This enzyme occurs in the kidney of chickens, amphibians, and reptiles, and in the liver of most mammals (Banhegyi et at., 1997). Gulonolactone oxidase is a flavoprotein. Each catalytic event of the enzyme results in the conversion of O2 to HOOH. It might strike one as a paradox that a vitamin (vitamin C) that helps... 

Bonnet macaques and fruits bats were found to feed voraciously on the fruits of A. roxburghiana, while the endemic primates were seen to prefer A. monophylla and A. tagala. The ripe fruits and leaves of Zizyphus xylopyrus were highly fed on by both chital and sam bar deer in the Mundanthurai plateau. 

The Indian fruit bat is also lacking in the liver enzyme for ascorbic acid synthesis (C6), but no nutritional studies have been reported. 

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