the UN climate change conference COP30<\/a> is being held.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762860728_325_grey-placeholder.png\")
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Getty Images<\/p>\n
Rabies is spreading at up to 20km (12 miles) each year across the Amazon landscape<\/p>\n
Prof Daniel Streicker, from Glasgow University’s Centre for Virus Research, said an increasing number of areas were becoming affected by rabies.<\/p>\n
He said: “This is a virus transmitted by blood-feeding bats. The bats need to eat blood every two to three days to survive.<\/p>\n
“People are getting bitten by bats routinely and for many, many years nothing can happen and then suddenly deaths begin.”<\/p>\n
He adds that there are hundreds of thousands of bats biting animals and humans in the Amazon every night.<\/p>\n
![\"Prof](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/5c1f5ea0-ba38-11f0-9bc3-15f9891aeafa.jpg.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
Prof Daniel Streicker has been working with bats for more than a decade<\/p>\n
A prime reason for the spread is believed to be climate change, with evidence that vampire bats in parts of Mexico are moving into new areas further north.<\/p>\n
The teams have witnessed an increasing spread of rabies across the landscape which is advancing at a rate of between 10km (6 miles) and 20km (12 miles) every year.<\/p>\n
They are aiming to improve understanding of the reasons for the spread to anticipate where communities are most vulnerable.<\/p>\n
Since 2007, researchers have been taking blood and faeces samples from vampire bats at dozens of locations to check for signs of the virus.<\/p>\n
Theses include monitoring rabies in bat caves in Peru, where nets are installed on cave entrances to capture the bats.<\/p>\n
The samples are flown back to Glasgow for lab testing.<\/p>\n
The results helps them track the spread so communities can be warned to take preventative action through vaccination of themselves and their livestock.<\/p>\n
![\"University](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/5da9e120-ba36-11f0-9bc3-15f9891aeafa.jpg.webp.webp\")
University of Glasgow<\/p>\n
Nets are installed on cave entrances to capture the bats for blood testing<\/p>\n
Experts say pressures on indigenous populations living in the rain forest are also behind the growth in vampire bat bites.<\/p>\n
The introduction of livestock into some regions is providing new feeding opportunities for the mammals.<\/p>\n
Human attempts to catch and kill bats in areas where rabies is present is also understood to be driving infected animals into new areas.<\/p>\n
In the long run, the teams are hoping to develop vaccination programmes that can be administered into the bat populations.<\/p>\n
One way of doing this involves administering the vaccine onto the animals as a paste and relying on transmission through other bats licking the fur.<\/p>\n
The process has been tested in lab conditions with field trials expected to begin soon.<\/p>\n
But the process is self-limiting, meaning only those immediately surrounding the treated bat would ingest the vaccine. <\/p>\n
Scientists are also working on a transmissible vaccine which can spread throughout the population without having to rely solely on the original treated animal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin KeaneScotland environment, energy and rural affairs correspondent Getty Images Vampire bats are spreading rabies into new areas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-285177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/b93b0670-ba3d-11f0-a0d5-273175887cd7.jpg.webp.webp\")
Getty Images<\/p>\n