Rabies assessment after bat trapped on a plane

In August 2011, a commercial flight from Wisconsin to Georgia in the USA took off carrying 50 passengers, 3 crew, and one bat. The bat flew several times through the cabin before it was trapped in a lavatory. The plane returned to its departure city and the passengers disembarked. Although attempts were made to capture the bat for testing, it escaped, first through the cabin and then the airport terminal before being seen flying out of automatic doors. The plane was searched, no further bats were found, and 15 passengers reboarded for the flight to Georgia.

An investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traced and interviewed 45 passengers, 3 crew, and maintenance staff, but none came into physical contact with the bat or were exposed to its saliva. Because ground crew reported previous bat sightings around the airport, an environmental assessment of the Wisconsin airport was conducted. The assessment found rigorous animal control procedures in place and no evidence of bat infestation. A few recommendations were made describing procedures to minimize contact between people and bats by using netting to prevent bats roosting in airport structures, extending and retracting the jetways at each gate before the first flight of the morning, and training airport employees on correct procedures for bat capture and submission for testing. No further bat sightings have been reported at the airport.

One complexity in the investigation was that a list of original passengers could not be used as this was voided when the flight was reboarded. Instead reservation records and other methods had to be used to trace passengers that could have been potentially exposed. Although in this case none of the passengers interviewed required post-exposure rabies prophylaxis, the incident is a reminder that public health officials should be prepared to respond to such occurrences.

Based on a news release from Reuters, and the report “Rabies Risk Assessment of Exposures to a Bat on a Commercial Airliner — United States, August 2011” published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, April 13, 2012 61(14);p 242-244.