Almost a dozen properties have been quarantined in Queensland due to more outbreaks of hendra virus at Hervey Bay on the Fraser Coast and Boondall in Brisbane's north.
Tests today confirmed that a horse that was euthanased in Hervey Bay on Wednesday and a Boondall horse that was euthanased yesterday both had the virus.
Three properties have been quarantined and seven horses are being monitored as a result of the two new outbreaks.
The state's chief health officer, Jeannette Young, says the vets that treated the two sick horses wore adequate protective clothing.
She says prior to the Hervey Bay and Boondall outbreaks, 40 people were being tested for hendra virus.
"I've been told that all of the people that have been exposed have had low or negligible exposure," she said.
Boondall is about 10 kilometres from the city's horse racing precinct around Ascot and Eagle Farm.
The disease has now been confirmed in six locations across Queensland.
Eleven horses have died or been put down in hendra outbreaks since last month; seven in Queensland and three in NSW.
Yesterday, officials cordoned off areas at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse because of fears the deadly virus could spread there for the first time.
Three horses have died in northern NSW in the last fortnight and Racing New South Wales said they were taking action to reduce the risk of an outbreak.
A cross-border taskforce, including the chief vets of New South Wales and Queensland, scientists, health officers and the CSIRO, met for the first time on Wednesday to plan a coordinated response to the deadly bat-borne disease.
Relatively little is known about the virus, but it is believed it can pass from bat urine or droppings to and between horses and from horses to people.
ABC/AAP
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