CSIRO Tracks Nature Of Hendra Virus - Deadly To Horses, Potentially Fatal For Humans - AFP

[hatrack]

Groundbreaking CSIRO research into how the deadly Hendra virus spreads promises to save the lives of both horses and humans in the future. CSIRO Livestock Industries' scientists working at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL), in Geelong Victoria, have made a major breakthrough in better understanding how Hendra spreads from infected horses to other horses and humans.

Funded by the Australian Biosecurity CRC for Emerging Infectious Diseases, Dr Deb Middleton and her team at AAHL have defined the period following the first signs of disease when horses are most likely to shed Hendra virus and therefore infect other horses and people.

First identified in Brisbane in 1994, Hendra virus, which spreads from flying foxes, has regularly infected horses in Australia. Of the 11 equine outbreaks, four have led to human infection, with three of the six known human cases being fatal, the most recent of these in August 2008.

Dr Middleton says limited information in the past, on when the disease can transmit, has made it difficult to manage infected horses to stop Hendra spreading further to people and other susceptible horses. "Our research has also determined the best biological samples required for rapid diagnosis of the virus in horses and identified the important relationship between the period of highest transmission risk and the time with which the disease can easily be detected," Dr Middleton says.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Minimising_The_Spread_Of_Deadly_Hendra_Virus_999.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Rabies, Nipah, Hendra...........the list of lovely diseases we can get from bats

just keeps growing..........sigh, and they are such important creatures.