Researchers discover deadly virus in bat

Researchers discover deadly virus in bat

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): A deadly virus that killed about 100 people and ruined pig farms across Malaysia last year has been discovered in a fruit bat found in most parts of Southeast Asia, news reports said Saturday.

A team of scientists from Malaysia's top research institution, the University of Malaya, have isolated a strain of the Nipah virus from the Island Flying Fox, a fruit bat that roosts in palm trees in Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia, said The Sun newspaper.

Lam Sai Kit, a microbiology professor, said his research team have so far discovered the virus in two of 1,000 urine specimens collected from the flying foxes.

Lam could not be reached for comment.

The virus, which swept through a large part of Malaysia early last year, first surfaced in a pig-farming district in Negri Sembilan state, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Kuala Lumpur.

It killed 84 people in that area alone and infected hundreds. The virus also sickened and killed thousands of hogs.

Lam warned that since the flying foxes are migratory creatures, it is likely that the virus will spread to other nearby countries. It is also possible that other species of bats or wildlife harbor the virus, he said.

Nevertheless, Lam added that his team had not found any cases of the virus being transmitted directly from fruit bats to human beings.

"There seems to be an inadequate amount and strength of the virus present in the flying foxes to enable them to infect humans directly," he was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times daily.

"Perhaps the virus needs to multiply in the pig before it becomes infectious to humans," he said, noting that the virus died quickly without a host.

In cases where transmission to humans does occur, however, the damage is severe. The Nipah virus is lethal to about 40 percent of human patients, causing severe encephalitis.

The virus is transmitted from fruit bats to pigs, horses and goats when such livestock come into contact with urine from the flying foxes, or consume fruits from which the bats recently ate, Lam said.

Humans, in turn, are infected through direct physical contact with semen and urine from the infected animals.

To prevent its spread last year, the government ordered the destruction of about 1 million pigs in Malaysia, the region's biggest pork producer.

The viral epidemic was declared over in October but in recent weeks, health authorities have once again begun culling more than 1,700 pigs in the central Perak state to prevent a recurrence.

Any hog farm found with even one infected pig must destroy its entire stock.

Because the virus was now found in fruit bats, Lam said it was important not to grow fruit trees near farms that kept pigs, horses and goats.