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The bat caves in Africa were sealed off to people. Apparently it’s not just eating the bats, but visiting bat caves with deep guano can transfer their zoonotic diseases to humans.

Of course, selling diseased bats at the markets and slaughtering g them in unsanitary conditions makes it a million times more likely people will encounter the disease.

But Ebola proves a highly contagious disease starting in bats doesn’t require bat consumption to spread.

[The bat caves in Africa were sealed off to people. Apparently it’s not just eating the bats, but visiting bat caves with deep guano can transfer their zoonotic diseases to humans.

Of course, selling diseased bats at the markets and slaughtering g them in unsanitary conditions makes it a million times more likely people will encounter the disease.

But Ebola proves a highly contagious disease starting in bats doesn’t require bat consumption to spread.]

After all the future precautions they’re gonna need to harvest these critters, the price will probably be like Kobe beef. $100 per lb or more. There’s an enlightening description of what bats taste like, along with a none-too-appetizing picture at the link:

http://www.orangesmile.com/extreme/en/disgusting-food/index.htm
[In many Asian countries, a soup of bats remains a popular delicacy. There are numerous fans of this exotic treats in the Fiji Islands. The main feature of the dish is to cook whole bats. The treat is also served to the table with an uncut animal. The price of this delicatessen is quite high, so not everyone can enjoy it.

Boiled Bat in Lutukina Restaurants, Fiji To prepare the dish, chefs have to work hard. The thing is that the meat of the bat has a strong and rather unpleasant odor. To get rid of it, carcasses of bats are long soaked in a special sauce of chili and garlic. This exotic delicacy is quite common in Vietnam, where there are many ways to cook bats. Animals are caught in the numerous caves and then delivered to the restaurant, where chefs cook real culinary masterpieces.

Bats are not only added to the soup. They are also fried, and then served to the table with a spicy sauce. A special exotic supplement to the dish is a glass with the blood decanted during cutting a bat. Such dishes may seem simply awful for many Europeans, but in Asia they have a lot of fans. In Asian restaurants, if guests feel uncomfortable, it’s always offered to cut the carcass of a bat to make the dish not so scary. The treat is sure to appeal to all fans of spicy dishes. Experienced gourmets say that taste of bat’s meat is very similar to chicken.]

Maybe we should look into blood plasma from Fijians and other natives of the South Pacific as the basis of a potential vaccine. It sounds like bat is an everyday entree for Pacific Islanders vs the rare very expensive medicinal concoction it seems to be to Chinese connoisseurs.

I found a link to reviews about a joint in Palau that serves fruit bat soup. Fascinating takes, and the closest I’ll ever get to dining on anything this exotic:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g294136-d1130948-r202829952-Carp_Restaurant-Koror_Koror_Island.html

Bat guano is used as a fertilizer. It’s very potent.