The Queensland and New South Wales governments are providing additional funding totalling $6 million dollars over 3 years to accelerate Hendra virus research.

 

The funding will support research questions identified by the Hendra Virus Taskforce:

  • Why does the virus spill-over from flying foxes?
  • How are horses and other animals exposed to Hendra Virus?
  • Why is there such a spike in cases this year?

The Queensland Government has already committed $1.5 million over 3 years to the Queensland Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases for Hendra research and $300,000 to the Australian Animal Health Laboratory to develop a horse vaccine.

 

NSW Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson said specialist scientists from the NSW Government’s Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute (EMAI) will form part of the team of disease experts.

 

The new research will include:

  • Improving our understanding even further on how the disease behaves in flying fox colonies – through mapping age and immunity structures within colonies and monitoring the stress of a colony by testing steroid levels in urine
  • How horses and flying foxes interact – through further monitoring of flying fox and other animal behaviour at night, with more infra-red cameras in more locations throughout Queensland and NSW
  • How environmental factors, such as food availability, temperature and rainfall impact on the likelihood of the disease ‘spilling over’ from flying foxes to animals.
  • A better understanding of what is driving flying fox movements, including the impact of extreme climatic events, using satellite tracking and other remote sensing techniques.
  • Further laboratory studies to investigate the susceptibility and transmission of Hendra virus in domestic species.

 

More information is at www.biosecurity.qld.gov.au and www.dpi.nsw.gov.au