Identifying and understanding the factors affecting infection control and Hendra virus risk management in private veterinary practices in Queensland, Australia

Abstract

[Extract] I hold a Bachelor of Veterinary Science equivalent (Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Nantes, France), a Master of Public Health (James Cook University), and am currently undertaking doctoral studies in veterinary infection control. The first outbreak of Hendra virus (HeV), a zoonosis transmitted from bats to horses (mortality rate 75%) and, in some cases, from horses to humans (mortality rate 57%), occurred in Australia in 1994. Since then, seven people have been infected with HeV and only three have survived. All infected people were involved with either the horse or veterinary industries (a horse trainer, a stablehand, a lay person assisting a veterinarian during a necropsy, three veterinarians and a veterinary nurse). The emergence of HeV has highlighted deficiencies in infection control standards among the Australian private veterinary workforce, even though these people are at higher occupational risk of exposure to zoonoses (infectious diseases that are transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans). Previous studies have shown that veterinary infection control is less than optimal in Australia but did not explain infecz tion control behaviours among veterinarians.