Global Medicinal Use of Bats: A Systematic Literature and Social Media Review
Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Luc Legal
Diversity 2022, 14(3), 179; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14030179
Received: 1 January 2022
/
Revised: 19 February 2022
/
Accepted: 19 February 2022
/
Published: 28 February 2022
The hunting of bats for food and medicine is one of the greatest threats to bat conservation. While hunting for consumption is the focus of increased attention, the specific medicinal uses of bats are poorly documented, limiting mitigation efforts. Here, we determine the distribution of bat hunting for food and medicinal use and characterize medicinal use practices. We systematically surveyed English-language scientific literature and social media platforms utilizing keywords and hashtags in 27 languages. We found 198 papers and 1063 social media posts from 83 countries and territories. Although use for food was more common, with 1284 unique reports from 71 countries, bats were used to treat 42 ailments of 11 human body systems across 37 countries (453 reports). Asthma was the most common ailment, distantly followed by kidney conditions. Ten organs or body parts of bats were used medicinally, with bat meat (flesh) and fluids (blood, bile, and oil) the most common. Understanding the effects and drivers of specific bat hunting practices will help guide conservation and public health efforts in the communities where bats are hunted. By pinpointing the ailments bats are being used for, outreach and alternative treatments can be introduced to replace the use of bats.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
bats; overexploitation; hunting; bushmeat; traditional medicine; conservation
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
- Supplementary File 1:
ZIP-Document (ZIP, 606 KiB)
MDPI and ACS Style
Tackett, E.S.; Kingston, T.; Sadeghmoghaddam, N.; Rutrough, A.L. Global Medicinal Use of Bats: A Systematic Literature and Social Media Review. Diversity 2022, 14, 179. https://doi.org/10.3390/d14030179
AMA Style
Tackett ES, Kingston T, Sadeghmoghaddam N, Rutrough AL. Global Medicinal Use of Bats: A Systematic Literature and Social Media Review. Diversity. 2022; 14(3):179. https://doi.org/10.3390/d14030179
Chicago/Turabian StyleTackett, Elaine S., Tigga Kingston, Narges Sadeghmoghaddam, and Abigail L. Rutrough. 2022. "Global Medicinal Use of Bats: A Systematic Literature and Social Media Review" Diversity 14, no. 3: 179. https://doi.org/10.3390/d14030179
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
