The Australian paralysis tick may be the missing link in the transmission of Hendra virus from bats to horses to humans.
Hendra virus is a new virus of the family Paramyxoviridae. This virus was first detected in Queensland, Australia, in 1994; although, it seems that the virus has infected fruit-eating bats (flying-foxes) for a very long time. At least 2 humans and 15 horses have been killed by this virus since it first emerged as a virus that may infect mammals other than flying-foxes. Hendra virus is thought to have moved from flying-foxes to horses, and then from horses to people. There is a reasonably strong hypothesis for horse-to-human transmission: transmission of virus via nasal discharge, saliva and/or urine. In contrast, there is no strong hypothesis for flying-fox-to-human transmission. I present evidence that the Australian paralysis tick, Ixodes holocyclus, which has apparently only recently become a parasite of flying-foxes, may transmit Hendra virus and perhaps related viruses from flying-foxes to horses and other mammals.
Barker
S C
SC
Department of Microbiology and Parisitology, Institute for Molecular Biosciences, ARC Special Research Center for Functional and Applied Genomics, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. s.barker@imb.uq.edu.au
D000818:Animals; D002685:Chiroptera; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D004463:Ecology; D045404:Hendra Virus / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006736:Horses; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013987:Ticks / Q000821:virology*