Rabies Vampire Bats

They touch
With flash intervals –
Wings on the other side,
A brief retouch
No notice was approved.
Arrival range spread
By the tail
and fang-glance,
Each contact person
A question asked
smear.
What are our names
contain
Mainly the timing –
how long
Forgot your mouth
Its purpose,
How much calories
Body
Can be carried
Before starting
Give Way.
In this
Skin trade
defense,
A new
information
Take root.

The poem is inspired by recent research that found that vampire bats can lick rabies vaccines to spread each other, thus spreading immunity through modification.

Vampire bats are often feared as carriers of rabies. In Latin America, they are the main source of outbreaks that affect livestock and people. So far, efforts to control rabies have relied primarily on phase-out. But it is a straightforward and often ineffective tool. What if there is another way?

The study explores a new, more humane approach: using a gel-based vaccine that naturally spreads through colonies as bats modify each other. Scientists tried this method in a wild vampire bat colony in rural Mexico. The results are surprising. By applying the gel to one-fifth of the bats, more than 85% of the colonies received it. The vaccine remains stable even in tough field conditions, and the gel is easier to use than older formulas.

This approach can not only help control rabies. It can also provide a new way to solve other diseases carried by bats. In a world where disease control often arrives too late or too powerful, a method of using it with social behavior (rather than opposing it), feels radical.