Keith Earls touched down in either half while Denis Hurley, Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul Warwick and Donnacha Ryan also scored while Ronan O’Gara added 12 points in an emphatic victory.

Alessandro Zanni grabbed an interception score but the Italian champions never looked likely to win this one.

The result leaves Munster seven points clear at the top of Pool One, ahead of Northampton Saints who play tomorrow.

Treviso had proved tough opponents in Italy having beaten Perpignan in the opening round of the group stage and pushed Northampton hard.

However from the moment outside-half Marius Goosen missed their first scoring chance with a penalty on two minutes, they were always struggling to remain in the game.

Munster took control of the tie after scoring three tries in the space of eight minutes.

A break by Earls was followed by Paul O’Connell’s pass to Hurley who ran in for his first Heineken Cup try, in the fourth minute.

Earls was then rewarded for his earlier break when he was on the end of Doug Howlett’s attack from deep to double the lead on six minutes.

The third try followed swiftly as the ball moved through several pairs of hands before O’Callaghan passed to Niall Ronan before staggering to his feet to receive the return pass to score on 11 minutes.

O’Gara had missed his first two conversion attempts but this proved to be third time lucky before adding a penalty that opened a comfortable 20-0 lead after just 16 minutes.

Treviso had a brief spell with the upper hand and looked effective in the scrum. That saw scrum-half Simon Picone go close before his opposite number Tomas O’Leary had his pass intercepted by flanker Zanni who had the legs to run in from half-way.

Goosen converted to reduce the lead to 20-7 but Munster got back on track before half-time.

O’Gara kicked a second penalty before his pass saw Warwick break clear, kick ahead and beat two defenders to the bouncing ball beyond the try line. That wrapped up the bonus point for Munster, six minutes before half-time.

Even at 30-7 down, Treviso refused to buckle and put the wraps on Munster for 20 minutes of the second half as the game slowed. However Jean de Villiers finally broke the second-half deadlock when his burst allowed Earls to grab a second try. O’Gara converted for 37-7 on 63 minutes.

Damien Varley thought he had scored his first Heineken Cup try but was ruled to have knocked on over the line but the replacement was involved in the game’s final attack that saw Ryan touch down for their sixth try.