Stay updated with breaking news from Ed Annand. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
The three main threats are Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), Hendra virus variant (HeVg2) and African horse sickness virus (AHSV), and scientists say the country needs to be prepared for such incursions.
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...