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Horsetalk.co.nz Portable kit able to deliver Hendra test results in horses in less than an hour Share Professor Ben Ahern, left, with a LAMP Genie III diagnostic machine, veterinary nurse Gabriella Doxey with horse Cartouche, and veterinary researcher Lyndal Hulse holds the Hendra diagnostic sampling kit. Photo: University of Queensland A new diagnostic point-of-care kit can detect the dangerous Hendra virus in horses in under an hour, rather than days. A rapid point-of-care diagnostic test to detect Hendra infections in horses has been sorely needed for decades, says University of Q...

Share University of Queensland vets are diagnosing the deadly Hendra virus in horses faster than ever, developing a diagnostic point-of-care kit that can detect the pathogen in under an hour, rather than days. Veterinarian Professor Ben Ahern said a rapid point-of-care diagnostic test to detect Hendra infections in horses has been sorely needed for decades. “Hendra virus kills humans and horses alike – the virus spreads to horses from flying foxes, with an infected horse occasionally passing the infection on to humans,” Professor Ahern said. “Without vaccination, the virus has a cas...

A grey-headed flying fox. © Mike Lehmann, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Australian scientists have identified a new strain of the deadly Hendra virus that was the cause of a previously unexplained horse death in September 2015. The newly recognised variant, identified by the Australian veterinarian-led research project, ‘Horses as Sentinels’, had not been detected previously by routine biosecurity testing in horses. The new strain shares ~99% sequence identity with the 2015 horse case strain, and has been detected in grey-headed flying fox samples from Adelaide, South Australia, in...