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UI Hygienic Lab test concludes that bat didn't have rabies  Call it a truly bat-tea experience. A western Iowa woman is recovering from the shock of finding a drowned bat in her tea mug ... after she had been sipping from the cup all day. The brown bat, about the size of two tea bags, made its way into the mug overnight and was undetected when she or her husband poured sun tea the next day, said Chuck Cipperley, environmental service director for Siouxland District Health in Sioux City. Cipperley, who has been with the department 35 years, took the call from the couple. "I knew the person, so I knew it was no joke," he said of the 60-year-old Woodbury County woman. The couple had seen a bat in their home the night before, but it disappeared before they could capture it. They poured tea the next day and put a lid on the mug. Cipperley said the woman, who asked not to be identified, discovered the bat when she cleaned the mug that night. Her husband put the bat in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until the next morning. Siouxland Health sent the bat by courier (on September 2) to the University Hygienic Laboratory in Coralville. Results the (same day) showed the bat did not have rabies. State Epidemiologist Patricia Quinlisk said had the bat been rabid, she probably would have recommended the woman undergo a series of rabies shots, even though the probability of contracting rabies would be low. The virus needs a break in the skin to enter the body, said Susan Brockus, state public health veterinarian. Mike Pentella, program manager at University Hygienic Laboratory, said the bat was a first for the lab. "We test many, many bats," he said. "But none that have drowned in a cup of tea before." copyright: 2006 Posted with permission, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa | |||||||||
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