Deadly virus scare in center of Sydney

2011-07-17 16:12:34

by Xinhua Writer Christian Edwards

SYDNEY, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Reports that the deadly Hendra virus may have spread to Sydney these days have seen the city's largest racetrack shut down and the city in a state of shock. Officials have cordoned off Sydney's Royal Randwick Racecourse after a horse began exhibiting possible Hendra symptoms.

The horse was reported to be showing signs of colic, shifting weight on its forelegs, salivation and fever.

It also showed subtle neurological signs, including "mild depression", and muscle tremors. The horse in question has been tested and while the results have come back negative, the racecourse remains in lockdown as officials scramble to ensure safety precautions are in place.

The Hendra virus is deadly to humans and horses and there is no known cure.

The latest Hendra outbreak to strike Australia began two weeks ago, killing three horses in northern New South Wales after spreading from Queensland. This most recent emergence has now killed seven horses in five outbreaks across the north of Australia.

Its arrival, so far south in Sydney, would be unprecedented.

Its movements, the way it spreads and its causes, are still relatively unknown, although there is evidence that its origin may be from colonies of flying foxes, a kind of fruit bat that is flourishing on Australia's eastern coast.

Speaking to a Randwick stablehand who asked to remain anonymous, Xinhua was told that the racing industry is completely unprepared for an outbreak of Hendra.

"None of our feedlots are covered, which means that all the bats flying over the racecourse from centennial park can drop into the food bins and contaminate all the water, all the feedlots.. it 's not good," he said.

Hendra first appeared in September 1994, when a leading Queensland horse trainer, his stablehand, and most of his horses were all struck down by a sudden and unknown illness. Within several days, the trainer and 14 horses were dead.

Australia's national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) through its Australia Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) has been actively involved in each recorded Hendra virus incident since it first emerged over 15 years ago

It was the AAHL's diagnostic team that identified what proved to be an entirely new virus whose origin and nature had not been isolated anywhere else in the world.

Hendra is named after the Brisbane suburb in which the first outbreak occurred.

The past two weeks of outbreaks have increased the total number of reported Hendra outbreaks by 25 percent, bringing with it a degree of panic in horse-breeding and livestock circles.

If the disease has spread into the Sydney urban center, the consequences for both the Racing and Livestock industries and the Sydney population at large could be dire.

Peter Valandys from Racing New South Wales told reporters in Sydney that racing officials are taking steps to minimize the impact of any potential outbreak.

"All our trainers make sure all their feeds and all their water are under cover.. we are taking every precaution, because as I say, it is unprecedented and because it's such a deadly virus we've got to be on high alert."

Dr. Raina Plowright from Pennsylvania State University's Center for Infectious Diseases Dynamics says researchers are still grappling with the fundamentals of the virus and its nature.

"We are trying to understand why this virus would ... emerge now, it's probably circulated in flying foxes for a millennia so why emerge in 1994?"

The scare in Randwick coincides with renewed calls for flying foxes to be culled as the virus spreads faster and further than ever before.

Thoroughbred Breeders Australia's chief executive Peter McGauren told the ABC that flying foxes should be culled to stop the disease's spread.

"We can't ignore any longer the need for culling. Then secondly, the vaccines for horses and humans that are needed for when a disease is caused," he said.

But hendra virus researchers warn culling flying foxes is not the solution because of the bats' critical role in the Australian ecosystem.

"Bats are critical for pollination of Australian forests. If we start killing bats, we'll start losing our forest," she said.

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