The effect of venipuncture site on hematology of bats: implications for comparative analyses

Wildlife health comparisons within and across populations and species are essential for population assessment and surveillance of emerging infectious diseases. Due to low costs and high informational yield, hematology is commonly used in the fields of ecoimmunology and disease ecology, yet consistency and proper reporting of methods within these fields are lacking. Previous investigations on various wildlife taxa have revealed noteworthy impacts of the vein used for blood collection on hematology measures. However, the impacts of venipuncture site on bats, a taxon of increasing interest in ecoimmunology and disease ecology,  have not yet been tested. Here, we use a long-term study system in western Oklahoma to test the effect of venipuncture site on hematology parameters of the Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) and cave myotis (Myotis velifer), two abundant and representative bat species from the families Molossidae and Vespertilionidae. Between September 2023 and Oct..., , # The effect of venipuncture site on hematology of bats: implications for comparative analyses

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.tqjq2bw9q](10.5061/dryad.tqjq2bw9q)

## Description of the data and file structure

ICB_0043_data.csv column name codes

### Files and variables

#### File: ICB\_0043\_data.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* ID: bat identification number 
* Date: date bats were sampled (MM/DD/YYYY)
* Species: bat species name in four letter code 
* med_RBC: median red blood cell count 
* RBC_Total: total red blood cell count
* med_WBC: median white blood cell count
* WBC_Total: total red blood cell count
* ret_Total: total reticulocyte count
* med_Ret: median reticulocyte count
* Vein: vein site blood was collected from 
* Basophil: basophil count
* Eosinophil: eosinophil count
* Monocyte: monocyte count
* Banded_neutrophil: banded neutrophil count
* Segmented_neutrophil: segmented neutrophil count
* Lymphocyte: lymphocyte count
* Slide_Size: blood smear surface area size
*...,