During the past decade, bats have increasingly been recognized as members of the animal group with the highest relative risk to harbour novel emerging zoonotic pathogens [2] . The emergence of Hendra and Nipah virus provided the first evidence of a zoonotic paramyxovirus originating from bats with a broad host range including humans. Interestingly, despite the enormously diverse chiropteran animal order, so far, with the exception of rabies, only fruit bats have been implicated as a reservoir of a number of new and emerging zoonotic viruses [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] .