kozhikode though union health ministry had asked the government to develop a mechanism for enhanced surveillance of nipah virus infection in bats and other animalslivestock after the second instance of the infection in 2019 kerala was unable to put one in place to identify hotspots by monitoring infection dynamics in bat populationswildlife veterinary experts said as fruit bats of pteropodidae family are the natural reservoir of nipah virus close monitoring of their ecology migration patterns and possible bat human interface near their roosts are vital to prevent future outbreaks the central directive was issued after national institute of virology niv pune identified the presence of anti nipah lgg antibodies in 12 of the 36 pteropus fruit bats collected from idukki and thrissur following the nipah infection reported in state in mayjune 2019 also during the 2018 outbreak in kozhikode samples from 52 pteropus bats were collected of which 10 19 had tested positive for the virus strain in rtpcr testing the chief secretary had forwarded it to the forest and animal husbandry departments but nothing much happened on this frontchief forest veterinary surgeon dr arun zachariah said that a longterm passive surveillance programme to look into infection dynamics in bats including virus shedding is important to prevent nipah virus jumps from bats to humans identification of bat roosts with virus presence and increased vigilance and awareness about it at the community level should be accorded prominence given the fact nipah infection has become a nearannual event he said that countries like bangladesh have put in place effective surveillance mechanisms on one health concept following outbreaks of the batborne infection in that country in the pastchief disease investigation officer at animal husbandry department dr mini jose said that though the previous outbreaks were usually found to coincide with the breeding season of bats during december to may indicating some seasonality nipah resurfacing in kozhikode now has come a bit early and that should be studied she addedfruit bats of the family pteropodidae particularly species belonging to pteropus genus are natural hosts for nipah virus