Zoonotic profile in bats from São Paulo city, Southeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT

The class Mammalia has 5,416 species (Wilson and Reeder, 2005) and the Order Chiroptera comprises the second major group of mammals in number with 1,120 species (Simmons, 2005), 172 of them are found in Brazil (Castilho et al, 2008). Bats play important ecological roles, but also are reservoirs of some zoonosis being the most known rabies and histoplasmosis. This work studied the zoonotic profile of 683 bats found in the urban area of São Paulo City, Brazil, in a period from April 2007 to November 2008.[...]