Fed: Aust scientists to infect animals with SARS

00-00-0000
Fed: Aust scientists to infect animals with SARS

SYDNEY, April 24 AAP - Australian scientists will import a SARS virus specimen andinfect animals with the sample in a bid to identify the link between animals and humans,a media report said today.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that scientists at the CSIRO's animal health laboratorywould join forces with Canadian colleagues to monitor the progress of the virus in chickens,pigs and cats.

The paper said the project would be undertaken at the request of United Nations healthagencies to determine if the virus originated in animals and if so, how it is spread.

The director of the CSIRO's laboratory, Dr Martyn Jeggo, said identifying how the viruswas spread meant infecting animals with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

A "P4" level laboratory in Geelong - the highest security level for dangerous biologicalsamples - was ready to receive the sample, Dr Jeggo said.

The revelation of the research project follows warnings yesterday by NSW health officialsthat the SARS virus would almost inevitably hit Australia.

NSW Health's director of Communicable Diseases Dr Jeremy McAnulty said Australia hadbeen lucky to avoid a SARS outbreak so far, but it was unlikely the state could remainfree of the disease for much longer.

"I think it's likely that as this has been going on for the last few months, it's likelythat Australia won't be immune and will get travellers (from) the affected areas who maywell get infected," he said.

However Premier Bob Carr and Health Minister Morris Iemma reassured the community thestate's health system was ready to cope, announcing the availability of 900 beds to treatSARS patients.

The government has officially listed SARS as a category four medical condition underthe Public Health Act - along with tuberculosis and typhoid - allowing authorities tocompel a person suspected of infection to undertake medical testing and treatment, andto place them in quarantine.

Non-compliance penalties include up to six months jail and/or up to $5,500 in fines.

Mr Carr defended claims by civil libertarians the move was a heavy-handed over-reaction,saying the community deserved to be protected.

"We've got to protect ourselves, it's as simple as that, we are entitled as a communityto protect ourselves from what is emerging as a very serious outbreak of an infectiousdisease in our region," he said.

NSW Opposition health spokesman Barry O'Farrell said while it was important to havea plan in place to deal with an outbreak, Labor's moves raised questions about how itmanaged the health system.

"In eight years under Labor, Bob Carr and three successive ministers for health haveclosed a staggering 4,527 hospital beds across NSW," he said.

"Yet now the new minister tells us that 900 beds can be made available immediatelyif they are needed to deal with an outbreak of SARS," he said.

AAP ld/pa

KEYWORD: SARS AUST DAYLEAD (REISSUING)