Embargo lifted at 00:01am AEDT on Friday 18 Nov 2011

Australia is about to open the world’s most advanced biosecurity research facility, a high-security centre within CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong. Minister for Science Kim Carr will launch the facility on Friday 18 November but there is an opportunity for journalists to talk to the leading scientists in advance and to tour the biocontainment facility before it ‘goes live’ and is protected under the highest level of biosecurity.

The AAHL Collaborative Biosecurity Research Facility (ACBRF) is dedicated to research on infectious diseases that affect human, domestic animal and wildlife health. The internationally shared resource includes state-of-the art microscopy technology which will enable fundamental research with infectious disease agents that require the highest levels of biocontainment.

Follow the briefing online to ask questions such as:

• What sort of viruses will be studied?
• What makes this new facility so unique?
• Will this make Australia safer?
• What will Australian researchers be able to do that they couldn’t before?
• What safety measures are in place to ensure infectious diseases do not escape this facility?
• Will this facility improve our chances of finding cures for diseases such as Hendra virus, SARS etc.?
• What international collaborations are being planned?

You can follow the full briefing here.  (Full buffering may take  a few minutes).  An audio file of the briefing is also available from us on request.

SPEAKERS:

• Professor Martyn Jeggo, Director of CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory: “Biosecurity of the Future”
• Dr Alex Hyatt, Head of the AAHL Biosecurity Microscopy Facility (ABMF): “Visualising the Invisible”
• Dr Linfa Wang, Leader of the AAHL Virology Group: “Containing the Contagion”

BRIEFING DETAILS:
DATE: Wednesday November 16, 2011
START TIME: 10am AEDT
DURATION: 45 min
VENUE:  AAHL, Geelong, Victoria

To arrange interviews with the speakers, contact: Emma Wilkins, Communications Advisor, CSIRO Livestock Industries, Australian Animal Health Laboratory (mobile: 0409 031 658 or email Emma).   Photos and broadcast quality video of the new facility are also available from CSIRO.  For any other general enquires, contact us on 08 7120 8666 or by email.

Feel free to use this quote in your stories. Any further comments will be posted here. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 8207 7415 or by email.

Dr Stephen Prowse is CEO of the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Disease.

“I’d like to extend my condolences to the family of the veterinarian Dr Ben Cunneen. This is a complex and dangerous virus that has to be handled with a high level of biosecurity. It’s difficult to study as it involves wildlife, livestock, humans and possibly other species. There are ongoing research projects to identify the risk factors and to perhaps help reduce the likelihood of a tragic event such as this happening again.”

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Further comments are expected and will be posted here as they are received. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 8207 7415 or by email.

Dr Stephen Prowse is CEO of the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Disease.

“Horse owners in eastern Queensland and northern NSW need to be aware that fruit bats carry Hendra virus and they should minimise potential contact between bats and horses in order to reduce the risk of transmission of the disease. If horse owners see fruit bats feeding in trees in the paddocks where they have horses they should either remove the horses or fence off the trees.

It is still not exactly clear how it gets from bats to horses and why horses are so susceptible. When horses are kept in paddocks where fruit bats feed, for example in paddocks with mango or other fruit trees or horses kept in small orchard allotments, what we think happens is that partially eaten fruit, urine or faeces from bats gets in to water or feed troughs and that the virus gets into horses when they eat or drink from those troughs. This is all speculation though as we know that bats carry the virus but we don’t know exactly how it gets into horses.”

Professor John MacKenzie is an expert in infectious disease emergence, at Curtin University, WA.. His laboratory has been interested in understanding the role of fruit bats (flying foxes) in the appearance of novel virus diseases such as Hendra virus.

“The most important thing to keep in mind when you have these outbreaks is that in general terms, there is no great risk to humans. The only way humans get infected is from horses, not from the original reservoir of the virus which is fruit bats. Transmission to humans does not happen very readily. When we were looking into the original outbreak of Hendra virus we looked at a number of bat carers, who were not affected, and we also looked at the people who did the autopsies of horses and none of them were affected either. The virus is not very transmissible from horses to humans. There really needs to be a cut or something similar for the virus to move to humans. There is no major risk to human health other than to people in direct close contact with the horses – if they have a cut which comes into contact with horse blood or nasal discharge there is a slight possibility, but it is not very great. If someone does get infected they are no risk to others as we have no knowledge of any human to human transmission ever occurring.”

Dr Ron Glanville is Chief Veterinary Officer in the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries

“This outbreak has occurred at a veterinary practice near Brisbane. A few horses have come down with an unusual sickness and three have now tested positive for Hendra virus. Two of these have been put down, one on Saturday and one on Tuesday. The third has relatively mild neurological signs and seems to be recovering. We have investigations underway to find out what has happened. We have quarantined the property, disinfection procedures are in place and we are testing other horses on the property. Qld health are also involved as it is a zoonotic disease so people in the vet practise have concerns about their own health.”

Are we likely to see another an outbreak like equine influenza and a lock down of the horse industry? The answer is no. This is a virus that is not highly contagious between animals. We know from past outbreaks that it requires close contact between horses or mechanical spread of viruses between horses to get transmission. It is not the sort of virus that is likely to cause an outbreak which spreads through the horse population. We have a quarantine in place but we are not going to impose a lockdown on the horse industry as we did with equine influenza.”