Anti-Rabies Unit resumes night trapping exercises

The Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries has re­sumed night trap­ping ex­er­cis­es in the South-East and South-West quad­rants of Trinidad as part of the na­tion­al Vam­pire Bat Pop­u­la­tion Con­trol Pro­gramme.

The op­er­a­tions, which be­gan on March 9, 2026, will con­tin­ue on a con­tin­u­ous ba­sis across the coun­try.

The ex­er­cis­es are con­duct­ed main­ly at night, when vam­pire bats are most ac­tive. The Min­istry said these ac­tiv­i­ties are part of on­go­ing sur­veil­lance and con­trol ef­forts to re­duce the risk of ra­bies trans­mis­sion and pro­tect Trinidad’s live­stock pop­u­la­tion.

Ra­bies is a vi­ral and zoonot­ic dis­ease that af­fects the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem of mam­mals, in­clud­ing live­stock, wildlife, and hu­mans. In Trinidad, the virus is main­tained pri­mar­i­ly in the vam­pire bat pop­u­la­tion, which can trans­mit it to live­stock through bites.

The Min­istry is urg­ing res­i­dents and farm­ers to co­op­er­ate with An­ti-Ra­bies Unit of­fi­cers to en­sure the ef­fec­tive­ness of these ra­bies vec­tor con­trol ac­tiv­i­ties.

Any ab­nor­mal clin­i­cal signs, sud­den deaths in live­stock, or ev­i­dence of bat at­tacks should be re­port­ed im­me­di­ate­ly to the An­ti-Ra­bies Unit at 693-1682 or to the near­est Coun­ty Vet­eri­nary Of­fice.

Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Ravi Rati­ram, Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries, com­mend­ed the An­i­mal Pro­duc­tion and Health Di­vi­sion for re­sum­ing the pro­gramme, not­ing that the last bat trap­ping ex­er­cise took place in 2023. He said the cur­rent op­er­a­tions are part of on­go­ing ef­forts for ear­ly de­tec­tion, mon­i­tor­ing, and man­age­ment of po­ten­tial risks to the live­stock sec­tor.

The Min­istry re­it­er­at­ed its com­mit­ment to safe­guard­ing pub­lic and an­i­mal health and sup­port­ing farm­ers through con­tin­ued sur­veil­lance, pre­ven­tion, and re­sponse ini­tia­tives.