An image of six members of the Streicker Group conducted research in the field at night. They are huddled together around a table and under a canopy, with the dark night lit my artificial light.

Professor Daniel Streicker and his team at the MRC-UofG Centre for Virus Research were recently featured across BBC television, radio, and online coverage, showcasing their work on vampire bat-transmitted rabies in Latin America. 

A live interview took place on BBC Radio Scotland on the afternoon of 11 November 2025, with additional filmed interviews of postdocs Jocelyn Perez and Hollie French, alongside Professor Streicker, in the CVR labs and fieldwork in Peru.

The Streicker Group has been studying the ecology, epidemiology, and control of vampire bat rabies since 2007, supported by Wellcome, the Royal Society, the BBSRC, and the US National Science Foundation. 

Their research focuses on how land use change, particularly livestock intensification, affects bat ecology and rabies transmission, how conventional control methods like bat population poisoning can backfire, and the development of models to forecast spillover risk. 

They are also pioneering innovative wildlife vaccination approaches to manage rabies within bat populations.

A head and shoulders portrait shot of Daniel Streicker in the lab

Streicker, a Professor of Viral Ecology pictured above, said: "Despite being one of the first recognised bat-associated zoonoses and the existence of control programs for over 50 years, vampire bat-transmitted rabies remains a chronic cause of livestock mortality and is the main source of human rabies outbreaks across Latin America. 

"The threat is also expanding as both the bats and the virus spread into new areas, making this a host-virus system that is begging for fresh innovation.

"The coverage from the BBC puts a spotlight on the issue while nicely showing the crucial interdisciplinary and international collaboration that has allowed the research to go on for nearly 20 years."

Coverage included:

  • TV: BBC Reporting Scotland Evening News: iPlayer (at 17 minutes)
  • Radio: BBC Radio Scotland, 11 November 2025
  • Online: BBC News article

More about he Streicker lab’s work can be found at streickerlab.com.

 

 

First published: 25 November 2025

<< News & Events


LINKS