By BECKY HAND
Community editor

   A bat found Saturday on a dairy steer feeder calf at the Whitley County 4-H Fair has tested positive for rabies.
   According to Tim Yagel, Director of Livestock for 4-H, Inc. this has never happened before at the fair, but added that  “It’s not uncommon. It happens at the farm all the time.” Yagel said that the parent of the calf’s owner found the bat during the night and “took care of it.”
   The bat was turned into Dr. Chobot at the Line St. Veterinary Hospital. Chobot said she does not run the test but turned it over to the state board of animal health, as proper procedure requires.
   The bat was found on the lower leg near the hoof, but was not biting the animal when found, and according to a bat expert at the Board of Animal Health, judging by its size, it was probably a baby.
   Janelle Thompson, assistant public information officer at the Board of Health says the expert suspects the bat was a pup and had fallen from its mother. “It probably was just trying to climb up.” A baby bat that falls from its mother usually dies.
   Bat bites are hard to detect, so as a precautionary measure the calf was destroyed.
   Thompson says the danger to the children is minimal as they are not allowed to sleep there during the night and only 10 percent of bats in Indiana test positive for rabies.
   Bats are actually good for the health of the community because of the number of mosquitoes they consume. Some bats can eat 600 mosquitoes in an hour or up to 3,000 mosquitoes in one night according to the National Park Service Web site, (nps.gov) “An interview with a bat.”
   “Mosquitoes cause more human suffering than any other organism — over one million people die from mosquito-borne diseases every year,” according to the American Mosquito Control Association.
   Animals can be infected by mosquitoes, too. Dog heartworm, West Nile virus (WNV) and Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) can be contracted from mosquitoes.