Public health officials are recommending that all children at a Brantford, Ont., daycare get vaccinated for rabies after a child found a dead bat and handed it to a worker last week.
Grand Erie Public Health (GEPH) is hosting a series of clinics where children can receive rabies post-exposure prophylaxis. The treatment includes one dose of rabies immune globulin, plus four doses of rabies vaccine given over a two-week period, according to a memo to parents and guardians that was viewed by CBC Hamilton.
The treatment is being offered “out of an abundance of caution, given the presence of other bats associated with” Creative Minds Daycare, Dr. Jason Malenfant, acting medical officer of health, said in an email. “While the daycare has assured us that children were always under supervision, and therefore the risk of any other direct contact with a bat remains low, young children may not be able to reliably report whether they had possible contact.”
Last week, the daycare, which is in the city’s southwest, closed Aug. 11 after a bat tested positive for rabies.
GEPH investigated and reported two people had come into direct contact with the bat. It recommended they get treatment and gave Creative Minds the go-ahead to reopen Monday once a wildlife management company had taken steps to prevent bats from entering the building.
The daycare said one live bat was captured and released inside the daycare a day after the dead bat was found. Owner Vicky McNabb said no one came into direct contact with it. Creative Minds also said workers found bats outside in June but there was no contact then either.
Kim Stewart, parent of a son who went to the daycare, told CBC Hamilton on Friday that she took him to get vaccinated against the virus on his doctor’s recommendation, and knew other parents and workers were doing the same.
Alena Lukich, spokesperson for Brant Community Healthcare System, said the team at Brantford General Hospital administered 10 rabies vaccinations at the hospital on Aug. 14.
It’s difficult to tell if a bat has rabies or not by looking at it; it’s also possible to be bitten or scratched by one and not feel it, GEPH manager of environmental health Keith Corey said in an interview.
“Rabies is transmitted during bites and scratches or through direct contact with the saliva of an infected animal to an open wound or your eyes, nose or mouth,” Corey said. “With bats, it is possible that you would actually not see the bite marks that have been left.”
Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNRF) said that’s because bats have small, needle-like teeth and claws. Therefore, any bat someone may have been exposed to should be considered rabid unless it is captured and tests negative for rabies, the ministry says on its website.
Corey said touching a dead bat also poses a risk for transmission.
Generally speaking, Corey said, the risk of coming into contact with a bat is low. If you do, he said, consider whether you might have a bite or scratch or touched its saliva. If you think you might have, contact your doctor.
From there, he said, your doctor can recommend if you should get rabies treatment, which is administered in partnership with your local health department.
If you find a bat inside your home or business, he recommends calling a wildlife management company to remove the bat and capture it for testing.
“While bat strain rabies is present across Ontario, the percentage of rabid bats is low,” MNRF says on its website, which doesn’t specify the percentage.
In 2024, there were 90 confirmed cases in bats in the province. Foxes, skunks and raccoons can also carry the virus.
All strains of rabies are dangerous and can cause the disease in any mammal, the ministry said. Once clinical signs of rabies show, it is almost always fatal, it notes.
Since 1924, 28 people with reported cases of rabies have died in Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada says. According to its website, nine of those cases were in Ontario.
Last year, a Brantford-area child died from rabies in the first domestically acquired case of human rabies in the province since 1967. The child had come in contact with a bat elsewhere in the province.
GEPH has seen an increase in the number of calls of bat-related incidents this year compared to previous years, Malenfant said.
“This greater awareness does provide more opportunity to remind the public that rabies is a preventable disease,” he said. “It is very important to not handle bats or wild animals and avoid any direct contact, and to always contact a wildlife control service for the removal of any of these animals. It is also important to ensure that pets and livestock are always up to date with their rabies immunizations.”
