Vaccination now rolled out across the colony of bats at Jersey Zoo
Wednesday 28 January 2026
Towards the end of 2025, we received the first dose of a vaccine to protect the colony of bats at Jersey Zoo. This was following an outbreak of the bacteria Pasteurella multocida. As this vaccine was a world first for this species, we introduced the vaccine in phases, which included trialling the vaccine on a small number of individuals, prior to a colony-wide roll-out. To do this, we worked with the European breeding programme co-ordinator, who works at Jersey Zoo, to identify four suitable bats to take part in the trial. This was based on factors such as age, gender and weight.
The trial took around 3-4 weeks and involved two injections over that period. During the trial we undertook daily health and welfare assessments and were really pleased with the results.
Excitingly, we have now moved on to the second phase of the vaccine roll out. We are hoping that this vaccine, which has been specially tailored to the strains of bacteria we identified as responsible for the outbreak, will provide the bats with additional immune protection. This will be incredibly important as we navigate the process of transporting them to their new homes in the coming months.
We plan for this vaccine to be made available to other holders of the species across the wider zoo community. This enables the knowledge that we have gained and the work that we have invested at Jersey Zoo can be used to help protect even more fruit bats from this disease.
An update on the bats at Jersey Zoo
The bats have spent the winter in their temporary accommodation across Jersey Zoo and have adjusted well to the change. We are also pleased to report that there have been no further cases of the infectious disease.
Despite separating our male and female bats and due to the complex reproductive physiology of the species, we have welcomed a number of new pups to the colony. All pups and mums are doing well.
We continue to work hard behind the scenes alongside other zoos that are interested in giving this fascinating species a new home. We have identified some potential new holders for some of the bats we currently look after, and all going well, they will travel to their new homes in a few months' time.