The equine influenza (horse flu) outbreak in Australia is currently contained and is on track for early eradication.

Australia’s Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Andy Carroll said that due to successful control programs undertaken by New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD) veterinary authorities, the actions of Australian horse industries and individual horse owners, the disease is contained and large populations of horses have fully recovered.

“Since reaching a high of some ten thousand infected premises in October/November last year, we now have less than one thousand infected premises indicating that our strategy in combating the disease has been highly successful,” Dr Carroll said.

The number of infected premises is continuing to rapidly decrease with no new detections of the disease reported since December 22.

“This success, and the use of vaccination, has allowed non-risk horses to move more freely to participate in events around Australia.

This is a great development in getting our horse industry and horse sports back on track,” Dr Carroll said.

The Australian racing industry has worked closely with health authorities and welcomes this announcement.

“The current trends are exactly what we have all been working to achieve – EI in Australia has been contained and we are now moving very quickly towards total eradication. One of the results of this is that we can be confident that the transport protocols that have already been successful to date are likely to be further eased within the next four weeks.” Bob Pearson, Chairman, Australian Racing Board.

Importantly, the Australian racing industry has announced that yearling sales will go ahead, offering a large selection of quality horses, as per previous years.

“2008 starts on an excellent note for the Australian racing industry with all of the major sales and racing events traditionally scheduled for the first half of the year now allocated new dates and set to proceed under full steam. Obviously there will be biosecurity precautions, but these will be sensible and manageable, causing the minimum possible amount of inconvenience to both vendors and purchasers. They are certainly not of a nature that should deter anybody from participating. I am also extremely pleased to be able to say that the quality of the lots will compare very favourably with other years” Bob Pearson, Chairman, Australian Racing Board.

Arrangements for the re-opening of Australia’s export market are progressing with Biosecurity Australia and the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service negotiating conditions with Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Iran, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Macau has provided amended conditions for the importation of horses and the Philippines have agreed to conditions for horses purchased at the Magic Millions and William Inglis sales. Negotiations with the Philippines on arrangements that will allow for wider sourcing of horses within Australia are continuing.

The United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and the Republic of Korea continue to import horses from Australia in accordance with conditions in place prior to the outbreak.

Dr Carroll said that while the control of the outbreak is good news for all horse enthusiasts, adherence to biosecurity and movement restriction arrangements are still the keys to successfully eradicating the disease.

“We are winning the battle against the disease and we are increasingly optimistic that horse flu will be eradicated much earlier than previously expected. Dr Carroll said.

Australian Racing industry:

Andrew Harding (02) 9551 7700 | arb@australian-racing.net.au