And you started doing that like how long ago now, back in like COVID time?

Yeah.

So, I mean, I started thinking about it in 2019.

I was in a situation where I wasn't sure if I wanted to change or not.

And I was speaking to Um, with a classmate at actually our reunion, uh, and she has sort of planted the seed, but also I had met some people through the uncharted committee community that were doing it.

Um, and then COVID happened and I live in.

Uh, Newfoundland, which is an Island in the Atlantic on the East coast of Canada.

or you don't

And so, you know, just generally, Dr. Brownberry, what's the first thing people should be aware of? I mean, this isn't, you know, the risk that it could be, but it is certainly a reminder to be aware.

yeah i mean the most important thing for people to keep in mind is that it's normal to find rabies in bats about 0.5 to 1 percent of the population of bats will have rabies and we're not testing every dead bat in the province so um this is just the first time that we have had a bat where there was reason to test it whether because it was acting abnormally or it was found deceased in an area where there was risk of exposure for example perhaps in someone's home and because of that risk it was prudent to have the bat tested and unfortunately it came up as positive Those who were at risk will be getting post-exposure care to help prevent rabies.

The problem with bats is that their teeth are very tiny.

So it is possible for if a bat is sort of in your home and you're asleep and it bites you and you don't... know that it happened.

You're not necessarily going to see the bite.

So that's why if, for example, a dead bat is found in the home, we take that very seriously and at a minimum get that bat tested.

Bats are great animals.

And then the risk becomes real, realer, I should say.