By Andrea Kath
the cambodia daily
For visitors to Phnom Penh, sunset near the National Museum brings a bizarre sight: a seemingly endless stream of bats, more than a million, flying out of the museum’s attic and circling the city.
For museum workers, the bats bring an equally bizarre problem: artifacts caked with bat guano and museum visitors ducking bat droppings falling through the ceiling.
“I have seen a lot of European tourist wearing Vietnamese hats to protect themselves,” said Hab Touch, deputy director of the National Museum.
Museum officials and wildlife conservation groups have tried for a decade to solve the bat problem. Culture officials want the artifacts protected; wildlife advocates want the bats protected as well.
The 1 million to 2 million bats at the National Museum are perhaps the world’s largest bat population inhabiting a man-made structure, said Colin Poole, country director for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The problem, says Bertrand Porte, head of the museum’s conservation workshop, is obvious: many bats produce a lot of guano, which damages the museum’s artwork and creates an unhealthy situation for workers and visitors.
Plans are in the works to build a concrete ceiling—replacing the wooden slat ceiling—with support from the WCS and the World Monument Fund.
“We are still estimating the cost,” Hab Touch said. At a rough guess, he said, about $1 million will be needed to build the new ceiling, along with other works such as repairs to the leaking roof. It is uncertain when repair work will start, as sponsors are still to be found.
Past attempts to protect the museum from bat droppings have failed, Porte said.
A second ceiling, installed in 1995 with help from the Australian government, is ineffective. During the rainy season, water leaks through the roof and onto the guano. The mixture drips onto the artwork. Workers can still smell the guano and are peppered with falling ticks, fleas, and excrement.
“If I had the choice, I would never work in the National Museum,” said veterinarian Jean Marc Reynes.
Reynes also knows something most people don’t: added to the aesthetic problems they pose, some of the bats may be carrying rabies, according to preliminary testing by the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia.
The researchers, who captured and examined about 600 bats from various locations nationwide, said an initial round of testing found antibodies against Lyssa virus in a number of bats, including some from the museum. The presence of antibodies means the bats have been exposed to the Lyssa virus and might carry rabies, although they may not show symptoms.
Of the four species living in the museum attic, two have tested positive for Lyssa virus antibodies. Two species are endangered.
“We cannot yet be sure if [museum bats] are carrying rabies, and if so, which kind,” said Reynes, who headed the three-veterinarian research team.
He said additional testing is needed to make that determination. Final results will be published in March, he said.
Reynes said that no workers or visitors have ever reported being bitten by bats, nor have any cases of rabies been linked to the museum’s bats.
If the additional tests confirm the presence of rabies, researchers will try to identify which rabies strain infects the two bats species. Existing vaccines may be ineffective against this new strain of rabies caused by the Lyssa virus, meaning that if a strain is present, workers might not be protected.
Reynes said this is not cause for alarm. “I am not anxious for the people, because they are not really exposed to the bats,” he said. “They are more exposed to rabid dogs in the street; rabies in bats are not a problem for the public health.”
Nevertheless, a bat bite for museums workers under those circumstances could prove fatal. “I don’t believe that any pharmaceutical company in the world would [develop] a new vaccine for only 10 people who are working in direct contact with infected bats in the National Museum.” he said.
