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Tests confirm Hendra virus killed horse
10 August 2009 | 05:47:15 PM | Source: AAP
A central Queensland stud is in quarantine and health officials are assessing workers after the death of a horse from Hendra virus.
A prized Anglo filly from J45 Equine Nursery at Cawarral, east of Rockhampton, died on Saturday, with tests confirming on Monday that it had Hendra virus.
Queensland Health officials are also assessing stud workers, including the manager who is believed to have been sprayed with bodily fluids from the horse.
Stud manager Deb Brown said she was eager to be tested after watching the horse's violent death.
"She was frothing at the nose and the mouth and she was just totally incoherent and she died pretty violently," Ms Brown told Network Ten.
"I want to be tested now. I want to be tested so that I know that I'm healthy or I'm not."
Two other horses have died at the stud in the past two weeks but their deaths were put down to a snakebite and old age.
Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin said bats may be to blame for passing on the virus, as there were many in the area.
He warned that people who had come into contact with the horse had a high risk of contracting the virus.
The Department of Primary Industries has quarantined the stud and a neighbouring property.
Ms Brown and a local vet called the Biosecurity Queensland hotline when the third horse died on Saturday, and officials attended within an hour and a half, taking a sample from the animal.
On being told of the positive test for Hendra, John Brady, co-owner of the stud, told AAP his business was "in big ****".
"It's going to devastate us," he said.
He said he was trying to return to Rockhampton from the Gold Coast as soon as possible.
Mr Brady told AAP before the test results came through there was no link between the filly's death and that of the two other horses.
"One died of old age and the other died of a snakebite," Mr Brady said.
But he said his stud manager had been sprayed by fluid from the horse.
Mr Brady said also on that property were foals and a champion stallion, which he fears may have to be put down.
He said a vet saw the filly the first day it showed signs of illness on Thursday.
By Friday it was gravely ill and a vet prescribed antibiotics but the following day it died.
Queensland's chief biosecurity officer Rick Webster said horse owners should contact their vet if their horses showed symptoms.
"Many horses will show high temperatures but the vast majority will not be Hendra virus," he said.
"The virus does kill people."
A Hendra outbreak in August last year killed Brisbane vet Ben Cunneen, the first person to die of the disease in 10 years.
His colleague, nurse Natalie Beohm, survived infection.
The owner of the vet clinic at the centre of last year's outbreak said it was common in recent times for horses to be tested for Hendra.
But David Lovell, the owner of the Redlands clinic, said the illness was "very rare".
First identified in Brisbane in 1994, Hendra virus has spread from flying foxes.
Of the 11 equine outbreaks in Australia, four have led to human infection, with three of the six known human cases being fatal.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1070192/Dead-horse-had-Hendra-virus:-Qld-govt
10 August 2009 | 05:47:15 PM | Source: AAP
A central Queensland stud is in quarantine and health officials are assessing workers after the death of a horse from Hendra virus.
A prized Anglo filly from J45 Equine Nursery at Cawarral, east of Rockhampton, died on Saturday, with tests confirming on Monday that it had Hendra virus.
Queensland Health officials are also assessing stud workers, including the manager who is believed to have been sprayed with bodily fluids from the horse.
Stud manager Deb Brown said she was eager to be tested after watching the horse's violent death.
"She was frothing at the nose and the mouth and she was just totally incoherent and she died pretty violently," Ms Brown told Network Ten.
"I want to be tested now. I want to be tested so that I know that I'm healthy or I'm not."
Two other horses have died at the stud in the past two weeks but their deaths were put down to a snakebite and old age.
Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin said bats may be to blame for passing on the virus, as there were many in the area.
He warned that people who had come into contact with the horse had a high risk of contracting the virus.
The Department of Primary Industries has quarantined the stud and a neighbouring property.
Ms Brown and a local vet called the Biosecurity Queensland hotline when the third horse died on Saturday, and officials attended within an hour and a half, taking a sample from the animal.
On being told of the positive test for Hendra, John Brady, co-owner of the stud, told AAP his business was "in big ****".
"It's going to devastate us," he said.
He said he was trying to return to Rockhampton from the Gold Coast as soon as possible.
Mr Brady told AAP before the test results came through there was no link between the filly's death and that of the two other horses.
"One died of old age and the other died of a snakebite," Mr Brady said.
But he said his stud manager had been sprayed by fluid from the horse.
Mr Brady said also on that property were foals and a champion stallion, which he fears may have to be put down.
He said a vet saw the filly the first day it showed signs of illness on Thursday.
By Friday it was gravely ill and a vet prescribed antibiotics but the following day it died.
Queensland's chief biosecurity officer Rick Webster said horse owners should contact their vet if their horses showed symptoms.
"Many horses will show high temperatures but the vast majority will not be Hendra virus," he said.
"The virus does kill people."
A Hendra outbreak in August last year killed Brisbane vet Ben Cunneen, the first person to die of the disease in 10 years.
His colleague, nurse Natalie Beohm, survived infection.
The owner of the vet clinic at the centre of last year's outbreak said it was common in recent times for horses to be tested for Hendra.
But David Lovell, the owner of the Redlands clinic, said the illness was "very rare".
First identified in Brisbane in 1994, Hendra virus has spread from flying foxes.
Of the 11 equine outbreaks in Australia, four have led to human infection, with three of the six known human cases being fatal.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1070192/Dead-horse-had-Hendra-virus:-Qld-govt
