Vampire Bats Kill 13 In Brazil - Reuters

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - "Rabies-carrying vampire bats killed at least 13 people in a remote Amazon town in Brazil's northern state of Para last month, authorities said.

The state health care department said the thumb-sized creatures had attacked about 300 people - an unusually high number - since March 2 in the riverside Portel area, next to the world's biggest estuarine archipelago of Marajo.

"All the deceased had a history of recent bat attacks and six of them had confirmed human rabies from bat bites," a department spokeswoman said.

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The spokeswoman said government scientists suspect the attacks are linked to a change in the bats' migration pattern caused by deforestation."

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