Global Security Newswire

Researchers from Australia and the United States have readied a vaccine against a disease that can be transmitted from horses to humans and is considered a potential bioterrorism tool, the Australian newspaper reported on Thursday.

Development of Equivac will allow for vaccinations of horses across the Australia, where the Hendra virus was first identified in 1994.

"I regard this as a high-impact achievement because it's something that's actually come off the laboratory bench into the Australian community," said Deborah Middleton, a veterinary pathologist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, who headed the joint research project. "We can save not only horses' lives, we can save people's lives."

It is possible that the vaccine could also be used to defend troops from infection by the related Nipah virus, according to the U.S. collaborators. Nipah is also considered a possible bioterrorism agent and, unlike Hendra, is known to be transmissible between humans.