LAST week's shock announcement of a Hendra horse death between Townsville and Charters Towers has refreshed campaigns against animal control restrictions.
Biosecurity Queensland confirmed last week a three-year-old horse died on January 3 after a rapid onset of the virus including blindness, fever and nasal discharge.
The property was quarantined and the owners, the backhoe driver who buried the horse on the property, and a vet have been tested.
The death has added to the weight of a Katter's Australian Party policy, which vows to give back power to landowners.
Federal party leader Bob Katter staged a news conference at the Southport home of Robyn Burgess on Friday.
Ms Burgess came under fire by government officials last year when she used an air horn to scare away bats.
Mr Katter told the North Queensland Register his party policy would cut to the heart of deadly Hendra outbreaks by removing bats.
"I think it's vitally important to attack the cause," he said.
"(Bats) have got Hendra, leptospirosis, Nipah, SARS virus, and a whole number of other diseases."
Mr Katter said his party would transfer control over land from the government to the people.
"In light of yet another Hendra outbreak, we've announced that every person will be given the right in their backyard to deal with dangerous animal life as they choose to see it.
"The Crown does not own our backyards we own our backyards and we will decide what happens."
Australian Party member and Member for Dalrymple Shane Knuth said their policy put people before vermin and guaranteed removal and action.
"In my home town of Charters Towers we have had these pests flapping around for 15 years and no party has offered any solution. At this moment, we still have 15,000. People are putting up with the filth, stench, ticks and serious viral risks that have resulted in death."
The policy which aims to cut back exploding urban flying fox populations has no restrictions on removal methods.
While Mr Katter said people "obviously can't go firing rifles in urban communities", not telling landholders how to deal with their own problems was at the crux of the policy.
No one in public has disagreed with the position, according to Mr Katter, but there is strong opposition to killing the protected animal.
Despite this, Mount Isa City Council recently supported bat culling.
The Government previously said there was still much research into investigating the many unknowns in linking bats to Hendra virus in people and animals.
Once again, attention is turning to scientific developments helping combat the fatal disease.
The Queensland Government said it had made a lot of headway in its response to an Ombudsman report into Hendra virus released on November 3 last year.
The Government said it agreed with the report's 74 recommendations, which it aimed to fully implement by mid this year. In recent months, progress has been made into Hendra studies, with a $2 million open funding program to attract wider research.
Monkey trials in the US testing for a human vaccine found also promising results from an antibody, and CSIRO said it was on track to deliver an experimental vaccine to protect horses.
The vaccine must meet safety, efficacy and manufacturing quality requirements, with field trials expected to begin this year.
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