Date: 6/1/26 12:29 pm From: Karen Nguyen via groups.io <nguyen.karen77...> Subject: Re: [OrangeCountyBirding] Bats in Irvine
Hi Aaron,
I used to work for the public health laboratory in Orange County and generally bats would be brought to us at the laboratory by animal control for rabies testing if it was exhibiting unusual behavior (dead, downed, flying erratic or unable to fly etc) and/or found within a populated/enclosed area with humans.
Perhaps a park ranger noticed unusual behavior from a bat or it was reported by a bystander which alerted public health authorities to test it. Testing is a requirement in these situations by public health.
The county healthcare agency will then release a press release to notify that there was a positive rabies case in a bat in case anyone had encountered the bat at the specific location and to seek medical care for rabies post-exposure prophylaxis vaccine series.
