Carry out surveillance of bats to prevent the spread of disease/viruses to humans to reduce human-wildlife conflict

Overall effectiveness category No evidence found (no assessment)
Number of studies: 0
Share Tweet Email

View assessment score

How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

not assessed
Certainty

not assessed
Harms

not assessed

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Bats can carry diseases and viruses that may spillover to human populations with serious risks to public health (e.g. see Schneeberger & Voigt 2016). Carrying out surveillance of bats for diseases and viruses, particularly in areas where bats and humans are in close contact, could provide an early warning system for potential spillover events and may allow preventative measures to be taken. This may reduce the persecution and culling of bats. Surveillance programmes and sampling protocols should aim to minimize disturbance to bats.

Schneeberger K. & Voigt C.C. (2016) Zoonotic viruses and conservation of bats. Pages 263–292 in: Voigt C.C. & Kingston T. (eds.) Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World. Springer International Publishing, Cham.

Key messages

We found no studies that evaluated the effects of carrying out surveillance of bats to prevent the spread of disease/viruses to humans to reduce human-wildlife conflict.

‘We found no studies’ means that we have not yet found any studies that have directly evaluated this action during our systematic journal and report searches. Therefore we have been unable to assess whether or not the action is effective or has any harmful impacts. Please get in touch if you know of such a study for this action.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Please cite as:

Berthinussen, A., Richardson O.C. and Altringham J.D. (2021) Bat Conservation: Global Evidence for the Effects of Interventions. Conservation Evidence Series Synopses. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bat Conservation

Related Actions

	Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
	Carry out surveillance of bats to prevent the spread of disease/viruses to humans to reduce human-wildlife conflict Action Link	No evidence found (no assessment)	0	Synopsis Link