Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

FiascoBarbie t1_j9jep2p wrote

Reply to comment by stu54 in What makes bats a good disease vector? by JustJustinInTime

bats also have fairly high body temperatures.

Meaning that anything they have is unlikely to be susceptible to fever and will be fine in the high temp of a human body with a fever.

78

Goser234 t1_j9l5h82 wrote

When you say "fairly high" how does that compare to like cats and dogs? I only ask because they also have a warmer body temperature and was wondering if we could see a similar, if downplayed, effect

7

andanother12345 t1_j9lbvce wrote

In general the smaller the mammal the faster it's metabolic rate (with some exceptions). A faster metabolic rate generates more heat. Flight also requires a lot of effort and the metabolic rate goes quite high while animals are flying. In birds we see a typical core temperature of 102-109F and bats 99-106F.

21

UDPviper t1_j9mf5mf wrote

And since bats are the only mammals that fly it would be a good guess to say they might have the highest body temperature of all mammals.

6

thumpngroove t1_j9mg1kc wrote

Just the fact that they are mammals and can cover large distances make them pretty effective diisease vectors, it would seem.

5