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11 January 2017
Wild vampire bats are now sucking blood from humans at night
Enrico Bernard – UFPE
By Sandrine Ceurstemont
Human blood is now on the menu. Wild vampire bats that were thought to exclusively feed on bird blood have been caught feeding on people for the first time, raising health concerns.
Enrico Bernard from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, and his team analysed 70 faeces samples from a colony of hairy-legged vampire bats, D. ecaudata, living in Catimbau National Park in north-east Brazil.
They found that three samples out of the 15 they managed to get DNA from had traces of blood from humans. “We were quite surprised,” says Bernard. “This species isn’t adapted to feed on the blood of mammals.”
snip
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2117767-wild-vampire-bats-are-now-sucking-blood-from-humans-at-night/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_mediu m=RSS&utm_content=news&campaign_id=RSS%7CNSNS-news
Wild vampire bats are now sucking blood from humans at night
Enrico Bernard – UFPE
By Sandrine Ceurstemont
Human blood is now on the menu. Wild vampire bats that were thought to exclusively feed on bird blood have been caught feeding on people for the first time, raising health concerns.
Enrico Bernard from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, and his team analysed 70 faeces samples from a colony of hairy-legged vampire bats, D. ecaudata, living in Catimbau National Park in north-east Brazil.
They found that three samples out of the 15 they managed to get DNA from had traces of blood from humans. “We were quite surprised,” says Bernard. “This species isn’t adapted to feed on the blood of mammals.”
snip
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2117767-wild-vampire-bats-are-now-sucking-blood-from-humans-at-night/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_mediu m=RSS&utm_content=news&campaign_id=RSS%7CNSNS-news