New Hendra Test Great Birthday Present

Filed in Recent News by August 1, 2016

TODAY is the horses’ birthday and the equine world received an early birthday present yesterday with news that researchers at the University of Sunshine Coast have developed a process to test for the hendra virus in 10 minutes, compared to the current lengthy laboratory testing which takes 24 to 36 hours.

Scone equine veterinarian, Dr Rowan Sedgwick said the test could make a massive difference to the equine industry.

Mare and foal in Scone. Photographer: Katrina Partridge.

Mare and foal in Scone. Photographer: Katrina Partridge.

“I think the update would be massive by the veterinary profession, if the alternative is kitting out and doing personal protection equipment and not being able to go the full extent on the horse when it first presented with an illness work up I think we’d all be using it,” Dr Sedgwick.

“Clinical hendra is uncommon but the ramifications are so severe to the industry that this test could be a huge win for the vet profession and the public,” he said.

“The current testing takes up to 36 hours through the government laboratories, sometimes you can get it done in 24 hours if you get it to the lab the same day and the couriers work out, but say on a weekend that just wouldn’t happen,” he said.

“If a horse has a surgical colic and it presents as if it could be a potential hendra feasibly that horse may die waiting on a result, generally something like a travel sickness you can start on a basic treatment and become more aggressive once you get the result in trying to save the horse, but there’s be limited instances of a horse dying because it presents as a possible hendra, but the test would stop that happening,” he said.

“It would have to be accurate though, for any test you have to think about sensitivity and specificity whether or not you get false negatives or false positives, so some tests aren’t that sensitive and so you get a really high rate of false positive and that may actually make things worse,” Dr Rowan Sedgwick.

Dr Sedgwick still recommends vaccinating horses against hendra.

“Sometimes these tests come along and they cost more than getting the animal vaccinated anyway and if you are in a high risk area, say north of Brisbane you may still be better off vaccinating, but if the test was cheap enough it could see the end of vaccinating,” said Dr Sedgwick.

 

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