On the weight of this evidence, many people think the human disease has ceased to be a problem. In the United States, fewer than two people, on average, die of rabies each year. Yet this benign picture is incomplete. Deprived of its canine hosts, the rabies virus takes up residence in coyotes, skunks, raccoons, and bats. One recent study linked 15 of the 17 U.S. rabies deaths in the last 15 years to insect-eating bats.
Bats are wide-ranging travelers.
If a rabies virus entered the bat population in Indonesia or Southeast Asia, it could easily turn up in Australia. She took it to the New South Wales Department of Agriculture in Wollongbar to find out whether the creature had a contagious disease. There, veterinary pathologist Graeme C. Fraser killed the bat and sliced it open. The bat had encephalitis. Preston lived near the woman who had brought in the bat.