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Australian Mammalogy Australian Mammalogy Society
Journal of the Australian Mammal Society
RESEARCH ARTICLE

An historical attempt to control flying foxes in Samoa with an introduced disease.

DHR Spennemann and J Wiles GJ Gary

Australian Mammalogy 23(2) 177 - 179
Published: 2001

Abstract

SEVERE disease epidemics are a rare but widely distributed phenomenon among flying foxes (genus Pteropus) in the Pacific islands (Flannery 1989; Pierson and Rainey 1992; Rainey 1998). The few documented outbreaks have produced extensive mortality and steep population declines, and are often followed by periods of slow population recovery. The diseases involved have never been identified, but have sometimes been preceded by local epidemics among humans or domestic animals. The high mortality rates of the bats support the theory of a novel introduced pathogen to which populations lacked previous exposure (Flannery 1989).

https://doi.org/10.1071/AM01177

© Australian Mammal Society 2001

Committee on Publication Ethics


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