The rabies virus (RABV) has been isolated in several bats species in the world, and among them, hematophagous, frugivorous and insectivorous species. Bats found in Brazil are small, which can lead to situations in which there are limitations in the collection of the central nervous system (CNS) and the amount of material may be insufficient to carry out laboratory diagnostic techniques for rabies. The objective of this work was to evaluate an alternative sample collection for the diagnosis of rabies in bats. A total of 92 bat samples, 82 positives and 10 negatives were selected. The cranial cavity was scraped with the aid of sterile tips and a virus diluent was added to create a suspension. All samples were submitted to Rabies Tissue Culture Infection Test (RTCIT) and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the RTCIT and RT-PCR using the cranial cavity lavage were calculated in comparison with the results of the laboratory routine (DFAT and RTCIT) performed with the CNS (considered gold standard). The results of the RTCIT show that the cranial cavity lavage is not an adequate sample for viral isolation, since the diagnostic sensitivity was low (37.8 %) when compared with the tests with the CNS. However, the RT-PCR of the cranial cavity lavage may be a tool to assist in the diagnosis, since it presented a sensitivity of 76.8 %. The results of this study suggest that cranial cavity lavage is an interesting alternative to enable the diagnosis of rabies in bats and increases the possibility of diagnosis contributing to rabies surveillance and control.

狂犬病病毒（RABV）已在世界上几种蝙蝠物种中分离出来，其中包括吸血性、食果性和食虫性物种。在巴西发现的蝙蝠体型很小，这可能会导致中枢神经系统 (CNS) 的采集受到限制，并且材料的数量可能不足以进行狂犬病的实验室诊断技术。这项工作的目的是评估用于诊断蝙蝠狂犬病的替代样本收集。总共选择了92个蝙蝠样本，82个阳性和10个阴性。借助无菌尖端刮擦颅腔，并添加病毒稀释剂以产生悬浮液。所有样品均进行狂犬病组织培养感染测试 (RTCIT) 和逆转录聚合酶链反应 (RT-PCR)。与使用 CNS（被认为是金标准）进行的实验室常规（DFAT 和 RTCIT）的结果相比，计算了使用颅腔灌洗的 RTCIT 和 RT-PCR 的诊断敏感性和特异性。RTCIT 的结果表明，颅腔灌洗液不是用于病毒分离的足够样本，因为与 CNS 的测试相比，诊断敏感性较低（37.8%）。然而，颅腔灌洗液的 RT-PCR 可能是辅助诊断的工具，因为它的敏感性为 76.8%。这项研究的结果表明，颅腔灌洗是一种有趣的替代方法，可以诊断蝙蝠狂犬病，并增加诊断的可能性，有助于狂犬病的监测和控制。