Austin Bat Hospital Blog

New Logo

Dear, dear friends had a another logo designed for the Austin Bat Hospital.  The art work is by David Chapman, an incredible artist in San Antonio, Texas.  I love it.  It is so cute!

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Heating pads

Well, it is a cold night tonight, in the 30s, much too cold for me!  All the cats, and dogs, and bats are cuddled up on their cozy heating pads. Everybody has one except for me!  If you have an old heating pad you don't use, send it to me at: 7601 Dee Gabrial Collins Rd, Austin, Texas, 78744. I promise I'll make good use of it!

Hoary Bat!

The cold weather brought me a hoary bat and a red bat.  They were icy cold, poor things, and hanging on the side of buildings.  They are both warm and happy now, and soooo beautiful!  As soon as I figure out how to use my new camera flash, I'll get some photos of them.

Cold Weather!

Burrr!  It's only 23 degrees F in Austin, Texas today!  Everything is ice covered and my water pipes are frozen.  The little bats are all cuddled up on their heating pads.  The electricity went out during the night but came back on again, thank goodness, or it would really have gotten cold in the bat barn.  It will be cold today and tomorrow, but warmer again on Saturday.  So I could be without water for another day.  I am expecting to get in a lot of cold little bats from outside.  Although the majority of Mexican free-tailed bats have left the area, many remain in Austin year round.  They can tolerate brief bouts of cold weather, but there are always some in need of a little food and a nice warm roost until the cold passes.  The Austin Bat Hospital is happy to give them the temporary shelter they need.

Bat Photos Coming Up!

I'm so excited!  A kind donor sent me the MR-14EX flash that fits on my camera with the macro lens that was also donated to me a year or so ago.  I can't wait to try it out.  I'm just waiting to get the instruction booklet so I can figure out how to use it.  I'll be adding new photos to my photo gallery soon!  I'm also excited to say that the article I wrote with Professor John Whitaker from Indiana about how red bat orphans learn to feed on flying insects without the help of a mother, is being published in this month's issue of Acta Chiropterologica, an international bat journal.

Teenagers!

Lots of little juvenile free-tails have been visiting the hospital.  The young born this year are now flying and doing their best to catch bugs.  They don't all do very well, so some end up with us.  Right now I have 7 of these "teenagers."  They sure are cute little things.  Unlike some of the adults that come in, these little ones are quick to accept an offer of food, gobbling up mealworms and babyfood with relish.  I really enjoy these little guys.

In Loving Memory

The Austin Bat Hospital received a kind donation in the memory of Mark Price, a wonderful friend to bats. Mark was a member of that special group of people who rehabilitate insectivorous bats. He will be missed by all.

More on Rabies Titers (RFFIT vs ELISA)

Was your rabies titer determined by the ELISA test?  If so, you need to find another lab!  According to a rabies authority, the RFFIT type test is the only internationally approved procedure for measuring rabies neutralizing antibody.  The key word here is neutralizing. The ELISA test measures ANY antibody that can attach to rabies antigen and many antibodies that attach to a pathogen are not necessarily neutralizing antibody. So a positive ELISA test may not be a positive RFFIT test. This can be dangerous given the fatal nature of rabies. The RFFIT (rapid fluorescent foci inhibition test),  the FAVN (fluorescent antibody virus neutralizing), and the TC/SN (tissue culture serum neutralizing) are all tests that measure only that antibody that will kill live rabies virus.  Patient serum is diluted out, and each dilution is mixed with live rabies virus. The mixtures are then put onto cell culture to detect what virus was not killed by the serum.  All three mentioned neutralizing tests are comparable and acceptable in measuring serum neutralizing antibody. The CDC uses the RFFIT test.  Other labs use a TC/SN test that gives the exact same results. ELISA tests to measure rabies antibody are unfortunate. The reason the neutralizing tests are so far and few between is because they can only be done in labs approved to work with live rabies virus and those labs that have the practiced expertise to do these tests. I would definitely recommend Kansas State as the only commercial lab in the US that does a neutralizing test.

Understanding Rabies Titers

The RFFIT test can be used in two ways:  to determine a neutralization titer (e.g., 1/5) or to determine a value for rabies antibody concentration (e.g., 0.5 IU).  The IU stands for international unit and is measured against a standard reference.  So, you have a test serum (e.g., your blood) and you run it through the RFFIT.  The serum sample is mixed with a certain amount of rabies virus and incubated.  Whatever antibody is there will neutralize the virus.  Then you add some fresh cells and incubate it all together. Whatever rabies virus is left (i.e., that which has not been neutralized by the antibody in your blood), will infect the fresh cells and this can be seen under the microscope.  So, let's say you have a lot of antibody in your blood. The virus will all be neutralized and not infect the cells. Ok, how much do you really have?  Let's dilute your blood and then see if it still neutrralizes the virus.  Ok, we did a twofold dilution and it's still going strong--must have a lot of antibody.  Let's do a fivefold dilution--still going strong.  So, at a fivefold dilution (1/5) your blood still contains enough neutralizing antibody to be protective (by the definition of the standard 1/5).  If your blood petered out at say, a 1/2 dilution, you wouldn't be protected.  The bigger the denominator, the more antibody initially in your blood (e.g., a titer of 1/75 has more antibody than a titer of 1/5 because it still neutralized at a much higher dilution).  It is a dimensionless number because it just refers to the amount of dilution of the sample that will give a measured (i.e., standard) response.  It doesn't say how many antibodies are actually in your blood (i.e., it doesn't give a measurement of it).  The titer is a proxy for that value.  (The whole thing can be further complicated by serial dilutions in the amount of virus used too.)  But the RFFIT can be used to get the actual concentration of antibody (by working against the reference standards).  This is measured as IU/ml.  So, the 1/5 dilution is approximately equivalent to an actual antibody level of 0.5 IU/ml.

Thanks to Danny Brass for simplifying a complicated topic.

Evening Bat Baby

I have the sweetest little evening bat baby (Nycticeius humeralis).  He is a boy and is just now starting to eat meal worms parts.  Such a cutie!