CSIRO Animal Health asked to join SARS fight

United Nations health authorities have asked CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) to join in the global effort to combat the SARS virus.

Citing the AAHL's containment labs as "a unique global facility" for studying infectious disease in animals, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health approached the Geelong-based facility at Easter.

AAHL director Dr Martyn Jeggo said the request showed that the facility was recognised globally as having the best virus containment facilities in the world for helping to ascertain whether the virus infected animals as well as humans.

But Jeggo said that importing the SARS virus into Australia for further study would require a policy decision at the federal ministerial level.

"There would be a lengthy consultative process before AAHL could import SARS virus into Australia," Jeggo said. "We're a long way from importing it at the moment."

Jeggo said that if the virus were to be imported, the AAHL would put it into appropriate species, for example dogs and chickens, then seeing if the virus could be recovered and whether antisera against the virus could be made.

The facility is the highest level of biocontainment (P4), and cost $AUD150m -- $500m in today's terms -- to build in 1987. "It adds considerably to Australia's ability to remain free of diseases," Jeggo said.

Jeggo said that the AAHL was last asked to join in a global fight against a virus a few years ago, at the time of the Nipah virus outbreak in Malaysia. "We've got a proven track record," he said.

It is not yet clear if and when SARS research might commence at AAHL, nor which species of animals would be involved. Jeggo stressed that at present there was no evidence SARS could infect species other than humans.