An entirely new kind of virus has been detected in bats in Queensland, Australia, during routine monitoring of flying foxes . The virus is a kind of henipavirus , and only the fourth of its kind to ever be isolated and grown in a lab. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The disease was detected in the urine of flying foxes roosting in bushland near Boonah, and if you’re wondering how on Earth scientists go about collection urine samples from giant bats? So were we.

“Collecting bat urine samples is a complex process,” said lead researcher Jennifer Barr, an experimental scientist at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP), in a statement . “First, we need to observe where the bats are roosting during

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