Potential risk of viral transmission from flying foxes to domestic animals and humans on the southern coast of West Java, Indonesia

BASRI, Chaerul; ARIFIN, Eko Muhammad Zainal; TAKEMAE, Hitoshi; HENGJAN, Yupadee; IIDA, Keisuke; SUDARNIKA, Etih; ZAHID, Abdul; SOEJOEDONO, Retno Damayanti; SUSETYA, Heru; SUMIARTO, Bambang; KOBAYASHI, Ryosuke; AGUNGPRIYONO, Srihadi; HONDO, Eiichi

Physical contacts between flying foxes and humans in the residential areas are shown in Table 4 . Less than half (44.7%) of respondents had frequent physical contact with flying foxes. Types of contact included hunting or holding (95.8%) and eating (34.7%) flying foxes. Only a few respondents (4.9%) used personal protective equipment (PPE) like leather gloves, glasse and/or hats to prevent being scratched or bitten when touching flying foxes. Fifty-eight percent of respondents did not touch flying foxes. Among the above 44.7% of respondents, the most frequently reported physical contact between humans and flying foxes was hunting or holding (96.6%), followed by cooking (83.9%), cutting (81.6%) and eating (78.2%). A few people (4.9%) who reported making frequent contact with flying foxes, used PPE when doing so.