Hendra news - new diagnostic test

13 May 2021

In June 2020, Equestrian NSW contributed $40,000, through the Federal Government’s Agrifutures program, to help the University of Queensland (UQ) develop a rapid Hendra virus test. Here is an update provided by Agrifutures. It’s technical, but the good news is that commercial release is planned for mid-2021. Development of the point-of-care Hendra virus LAMP test has now advanced to the manufacturing stage. Commercial kits containing all components required to perform the test have started rolling out. Virus inactivation proof-of-concept has been established by performing cell culture experiments that demonstrated the virus became inactivated and non-infectious in samples when a combination of a five-minute chemical, and a heat inactivation step, was applied to preparation of the sample for HeV testing. Furthermore, the two-step HeV testing protocol has been locked in, whereby the first step is to test for inhibitors in the sample that may prevent detection of HeV. When a true positive result of the internal control is confirmed, HeV testing can proceed. HeV testing kits contain all components required to perform the test on the Genie III (Optigene Ltd), including individual internal test controls for both the internal control and HeV kits, in addition to detailed instructions on how to prepare the components for testing. Beta testing of the GeneWorks HeV kits is underway, with equine veterinarians and nurses to be trained to perform the test. The UQ, Biosecurity Sciences Laboratory and GeneWorks teams are currently on track for commercial release of the HeV testing system by mid-2021.

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