Fruit Bat Cull Urged to Halt Spread of Lethal Hendra Virus

Former federal agriculture minister Peter McGauran has called for a national cull of fruit bats to check the southward spread of the lethal Hendra virus.

Mr McGauran, now chief executive of horse industry body Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, said the emergence of the disease on NSW's mid-north coast was a "crunch point".

"This growing problem has been ignored long enough," he said yesterday from the US.

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