New research has confirmed the longstanding belief that the risk of hendra virus infection can be significantly reduced by keeping horses away from fruiting or flowering trees that flying foxes (the type of Australian fruit bat that transmits the disease to horses) feed in.

Biosecurity Queensland, Australia, researcher Hume Field, BVSc, MSc, PhD, MACVS, said scientists from the Queensland Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases (QCEID) had undertaken two studies into the levels and distribution patterns of hendra virus excreted by flying foxes.

"The investigation has found that all flying fox urine and almost all feces and fruit debris, or spats, fall directly under the canopy of fruiting trees in which they are feeding," Field said. "Therefore it is clear that unstabled horses should be kept in open pastures and away from trees in flower or fruit."

Field said QCEID scientists had looked at the amount of excreta and food debris left by flying foxes and the pattern of distribution