LANDS and Natural Resources Secretary Tom Pangelinan has called on the community to “re-think” the consumption of fruit bats, and to adhere to a local moratorium against the hunting of these endangered species.
Pangelinan’s statement is in response to a recent study linking flying fox bat consumption to a brain illness called ALS-PDC which is similar to Lou Gehrig’s, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
“People should re-think eating fruit bats. Is eating fruit bat worth the risk of getting associated illness and breaking the law?” Pangelinan told Variety.
The bats feed on the cycad plant that has seeds containing a toxin that could damage brain cells, the study said.
The toxin, according to neurologist Oliver W. Sacks of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and Paul A. Cox of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, could accumulate in the bats’ fat.
Pangelinan said the cycad plant grows on Guam and Rota, but only a few are found on Saipan.
Tina De Cruz, wildlife supervisor of the Division of Fish and Wildlife, said that while DFW is not qualified to comment on a medical condition, the findings “make a lot of sense.”
De Cruz said the researchers’ argument that bats might store plant toxins in their fat are “quite believable.”
“Many other animals bio-accumulate heavy metals and toxic chemicals in their fat. Some of these substances (are) not harmful to the organism, (but) are toxic to humans that consume them; reef fish that accumulate the ciguatera toxin is a good example,” she said.
De Cruz, however, said it has not been determined whether fruit bats store the neurotoxin in their fat.
“Until someone does the tests, we won’t know for sure. Of course, if it turns out that some fruit bats do have toxic substances in their fat, then some people may think twice before eating an endangered species at the next fiesta,” she said.
Pangelinan and De Cruz, however, said the recent findings “may not make any difference.”
“There are still a lot of people who smoke cigarettes despite established links between tobacco smoking and lung cancer. The same is true for fruit bats. You ban it from hunting and eating, and then here’s comes a study, but still, people will eat it if they have it,” said Pangelinan.
