Some of the world's deadliest viruses are carried by bats and Australian scientists want to know how to stop the bats spreading disease to other animals and humans.
The bats themselves often don't suffer any ill-effects despite the dangerous illnesses they carry.
The CSIRO says it hopes to protect the health of people and livestock through a comprehensive research program into bats.
The program aims to better understand bat immunology and also to identify strategies to control the viruses.
Dr Linfa Wang, the leader of a team of scientists at CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong, says it's important to understand the phenomenon of "host-switching", where a virus spreads from an existing host species to a new one.
"In most cases these host-switching events go unnoticed, as no disease develops in the new host," Dr Wang said in a statement.
"However, in other situations the virus adapts to the new species and causes severe disease and in some cases death."
In the past, bats have been a key source of viruses such as hendra, ebola and SARS which were spread from bats to humans. There are many viruses that can spread from animals and cause disease in animals and humans. These diseases are called zoonoses.
"Our research will assist in developing faster, more sensitive surveillance tools that may radically change the risk management of zoonotic diseases within Australia and worldwide," Dr Wang said.
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