Blood Is A Terrible Food Source - Yet Vampire Bats Thrive On It. Here's Why.

It sounds gross to humans - unless you read those "Twilight" books in which case maybe it's sexy - but a lot of animals consume blood. That's right, even your cat familiar. The question is why? Blood is actually a poor source of energy.

Marburg virus: Study of bat natural immunity may shed light on human disease - Outbreak News Today

Scientists examining the genome of Egyptian fruit bats, a natural reservoir for the deadly Marburg virus, have identified several immune-related genes that suggest bats deal with viral infections in a substantially different way than primates. Their research, published online today in the journal Cell, demonstrates that bats may be able to host viruses that are pathogenic ...

Egyptian fruit bat genome yields clues about bats' ability to harbor and transmit deadly pathogens without getting sick

Boston University researchers, Thomas Kepler, professor of microbiology; Stephanie Pavlovich, an MD/PhD student; and Elke Mühlberger, director, Biomolecule Production Core, National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories ...