Two years for Hendra virus

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has announced that it believes they can develop a horse vaccine for the Hendra virus within two years if given the correct funding and support.

This announcement has relieved many horse breeders and veterinary surgeons, as the Hendra virus has recently claimed the life of veterinary surgeon, Dr. Alister Rodgers who treated the infected foal at the J4S Equine Nursery in Queensland.

Four people have died of the Hendra virus since 1994 and experts at CSIRO are keen to get the production of a vaccine up and running as quickly as possible. There is currently no cure, antidote or vaccine for the virus and researchers know releatively little about the disease.

However Dr Martyn Jeggo from CSIRO's Animal Health Laboratory reported that early horse trials were promising, yet the organisation is fully aware of the full costs that such drug trials will cost with overall totals reaching $1 billion to develop an effective vaccine for the Hendra virus.

Three other stud workers at the Cawarral nursery have also been taken into hospital suffering from headaches and the equine centre is still under quarantine and under investigation by CSIRO.

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September 07^th 2009

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