Researchers from the Queensland Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases (QCEID) in Australia have made significant progress into understanding the effect of dispersal on flying fox colonies, the animals known to transmit hendra virus to horses.

Biosecurity Queensland´s principal scientist Hume Field, BVSc, MSc, PhD, MACVS, said the 12-month research project assessed the impact of colony dispersal on stress and hendra virus infection levels in affected flying foxes.

"A key finding of the project (was) there was no association between the disturbance to a colony from dispersal and an increase in the excretion of hendra virus," Field said.

"Researchers measured the stress hormones and virus levels in flying foxes by collecting and testing urine before, during and after the dispersal of a colony," he explained. "Transmitters were also attached to flying foxes to track their movements by satellite, and showed that flying foxes did not stay in the one colony, but regularly moved from colony to colony. Of the 13 colonies monitored (10 in Queensland, 3 in New South Wales) 10 were dispersed or disturbed as a result of the submission of a Damage Mitigation Permit