Technique for the Removal of the Brain in Bats

Abstract

IN public health investigations it is essential that animal hosts and reservoirs be correctly identified. Specialists, particularly mammalogists, are usually willing to identify specimens collected in return for retaining all or a portion of the mammals submitted, especially if the specimens, such as bats, come from a zoologically interesting area, are rare in collections, or might present some challenging taxonomic problem. Since there is an increasing interest in the public health importance of bats (such as their involvement with rabies), countries which have not yet made surveys of their bat populations for the incidence of rabies are being encouraged to do so (Expert Committee on Rabies—Fourth Report, W.H.O. Tech. Rep. Ser. No. 201, 1960). For the purposes of accurate identification, the head is the most important part of the body to the mammalogist, while its contents are of paramount importance to the epidemiologist. The conventional laboratory techniques used for brain tissue removal in rabies diagnosis (W.H.O. Monogr. Ser. No. 23, 1954, and U.S. Public Health Service Pub. No. 568, 1957) frequently mutilate the skin and skull and not only make identification difficult but ruin the specimen for museum purposes.