ARB Calls For More Funding To Hendra Virus Research

The Australian Racing Board Chairman, Bob Bentley, has urged the Commonwealth Government to allocate increased funding to Hendra Virus research.

"The outbreak of Hendra Virus at the Sunshine Coast brings to 13 the number of outbreaks of this disease in coastal Queensland and northern New South Wales since it was first identified in 1994.

Dr Peter Reid, a Queensland Veterinarian who has held a close involvement with the efforts to understand this disease since as far back as 1994 has advised the Australian Racing Board that “there is therefore no doubt at all that the frequency is increasing and I believe that we are still in the relatively early years of (the emergence of) this serious disease."

In these circumstances we believe that it is imperative that the highest priority be given to funding Hendra Virus research." – Bob Bentley, Chairman Australian Racing Board

"Scientists working at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory '(AAHL)' in conjunction with American scientists have formulated and tested an experimental vaccine (recombinant subunit sG glycoprotein) which is shown to be effective in the laboratory at preventing HeV infection using cats as the experimental model.

It appears that the development of a human vaccine is likely to be expensive and long range (probably 15 years) making it uneconomical for any pharmaceutical company to undertake.

However it seems that the development of the vaccine for use in horses is much less expensive and could be achieved in much shorter timeframe. Progress on this front requires urgent funding to test the vaccine on horses under high bio-containment security conditions at AAHL, have the vaccine undergo safety checks and registration before commercial partner for production and rollout is sourced.

This further work might be able to be completed within two years and at a cost of between $1-2M. Crucially, a vaccine that prevented horses from becoming sick from HeV would thereby eliminate the risk to humans." – Bob Bentley

"AAHL is also researching the possibility of a rapid stall-side diagnostic test. Such a tool would assist people out in the field to rapidly diagnose a potential Hendra Virus case and allow them to put in place the necessary biosecurity measures earlier.

I am conscious that AAHL is substantially funded by the Australian Government via CSIRO and your department, so that the Australian Government has already done a considerable amount to prepare Australia to deal with this disease. My concern is that the timelines of this current research depends on additional funding be made available at the earliest possible opportunity. I urge the Government to make this funding available." – Bob Bentley

For further inquires:

Mr Andrew Harding

Chief Executive

Office: 02 9551 7700

Mobile: 0417 043 233

Notes to Editors:

HeV and its very close relative Nipah Virus (NiV) are both classified as BSL-4 viruses. They are viruses of the highest level of human health risk with currently no known cure and specific vaccine.

Since 1994 there have been a total of 13 outbreaks of HeV in coastal Queensland and northern New South Wales. When the outbreak occurred in Brisbane in September 1994, racing was cancelled because of standstill and quarantine restrictions imposed by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, horse movements were disrupted and there was concern expressed by overseas trainers, notably Dermot Weld, that they were seriously considering not sending horses to the Melbourne Spring Carnival.

There are 4 species of flying foxes (fruit bats) in Australia that are known to have antibodies against HeV and they are scientifically acknowledged as the natural reservoir of the virus. Sero-prevalence has been demonstrated to be approximately 40%. The spill- over to horses occurs when infected fruit bats shed or transmit the virus in their saliva, urine, “spats”, placental fluids, aborted foetuses, and probably faeces and horses become infected from eating and/or drinking virus contaminated feed, partially eaten fruit or water.

Although the outbreaks so far have been confined to Queensland and Northern New South Wales the potential exists for outbreaks to occur in any areas of Australia naturally inhabited by the fruit bats i.e. as far south as Melbourne because the Grey Headed Fruit Bat (Pteropus poliocephalus) extends right down the east coast of New South Wales and Victoria. Indeed there were press reports earlier this month of an influx of more than 130,000 flying foxes into Victoria since February of this year attributed to wet weather patterns in Queensland. It is thought that some of these bats may even have travelled as far as Mt Gambier in South Australia.

Nipah Virus which is very closely related to HeV has not been identified in Australia to this point, but has been found in New Guinea and the antibodies of both viruses are found in fruit bat species throughout all south-east Asian countries, Bangladesh, India and have recently been identified throughout South Africa. Different species of fruit bats in these countries to those in Australia are considered the natural source or reservoir of Nipah.