Horse breeders call for national vaccine program against horse flu

Immediately following the announcement declaring that New South Wales is now free of equine influenza (EI), breeders have called for the implementation of an industry-wide vaccination program.

No new cases of the disease have appeared since December 21st and the State Government says its program of vaccination and restrictions on the movement of horses has been a success.

At the peak of the outbreak, which began last August, forty-one-thousand horses were infected at more than 5,800 properties throughout the state and the epidemic brought NSW's racing industry to an abrupt halt.

John Messara the president of the Thoroughbred Breeders Association says the industry cannot afford to have a similar outbreak again; the outbreak occurred just before the breeding season; the average incubation period for the disease is 50 days.

Dr. Bruce Christie, the state's chief veterinarian, says most of the racehorses that have had this disease will only just be back into work, and racehorse owners would have to wait and see if the performance of any of their infected animals would be affected long term.

Dr. Christie says it all depends on the strain of the virus and the racehorse.

According to the NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald it has taken other countries up to two to three years to eradicate EI and the achievement of the NSW authorities is nothing short of remarkable.

Breeders say the adoption of a continuing vaccination policy which operates in other countries where this disease has appeared, is common sense and a practical solution.

Mr Macdonald, speaking at Centennial Park stables in Sydney, says however that authorities will adopt a precautionary approach as required under international protocols.

They will continue to test horses to make sure there are no isolated pockets of the disease left and no evidence of the existence of the disease; this will take at least a year and current restrictions on movement of horses in parts of the state will remain in place until at least mid-March.

Mr MacDonald said the NSW government had spent $46 million containing the disease and 100,000 horses had been vaccinated.