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HEALTH HAZARD: Residents in Charters Towers have health concerns about a colony of bats near a children's park.

A DEADLY disease closely related to Hendra virus with "pandemic potential" could enter Australia via fruit bats, new research has found.

The Nipah virus, which has not yet been found in Australia, has wrought havoc across Asia, killing scores of people and forcing mass culls of pigs.

An outbreak in Malaysia in 1999 caused the death of 106 people of 265 infected, and led to more than one million pigs being culled.

The killer virus could enter Australia via fruit bats flying across the Torres Strait, a study led by Dr Andrew Breed from the University of Queensland has found.

"While Hendra virus has only infected people via horses, Nipah has caused fatal human infections via drinking contaminated syrup, contact with infected pigs, and human-to-human transmission," he said.

Between 2004 and 2012, Dr Breed used satellite trackers to study the black flying-fox found in Queensland and parts of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. He found they regularly crossed the 150km Torres Strait between PNG and Cape York.

"Our study shows Queensland's distance from neighbouring countries does not offer as much protection as we thought," Dr Breed said.

He said Nipah was "unlikely" to become established in Australian flying foxes, as many had antibodies to Hendra which could provide protection against Nipah.

"However, both Hendra and Nipah virus are worrying because they have high mortality rates and are not well understood," he said.

Excerpt from:
New virus risk hangs over our heads