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Horse flu action set to cost millions
August 23, 2007
Australia's horse breeding industry stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars due to a suspected case of equine influenza.
A thoroughbred stallion being held in quarantine at Eastern Creek in western Sydney is showing clinical signs consistent with horse flu.
All 52 thoroughbreds at the centre will remain in quarantine for 30 days as a result.
Another 27 horses in quarantine at Spotswood in Melbourne will also be held for 30 days because some of them travelled to Australia with the stallions at Eastern Creek.
Most of the horses were set to be taken to the upper Hunter region ahead of next week's thoroughbred breeding season.
The federal Agriculture Minister, Peter McGauran, says all of the animals will be held until they are cleared of equine influenza, a move which will be a major financial blow to the stud industry.
"Most of them would serve about five mares a day," he said.
"A number of these stallions are between $100,000 and $200,000 per serve, so you can quickly do the arithmetic and see that millions of dollars are being lost by these top stallions."
Mr McGauran says it is still unclear whether the affected stallion is from Japan, where an outbreak of equine flu is reported to have cost the country's racing industry $500,000.
He says testing of all the horses will continue, and warns the 30-day quarantine period will start again if other cases are found.
Industry chaos
The president of the Australian Equine Veterinarians Association (EVA) says all sectors of Australia's multi-billion-dollar horse industry would come to a standstill if horse flu took hold.
James Gilkerson says the seriousness of the situation in Australia cannot be downplayed.
"The horse industry in Australia is at least a $9 billion-dollar-a-year industry," he said.
"If we had an outbreak of equine influenza that spread in a couple of states in eastern Australia, you would shut down all racing, all standard-bred racing, all gymkhanas, pony clubs. All horse movements would be stopped."
The president of Australian Thoroughbred Breeders, John Messara, agrees that the cost to the industry could be immense.
"Those stallions that are caught in quarantine have books totalling about 4,000 to 5,000 mares," he said.
"If none of those were to be served and all those mares had to find Australian stallions at a lower fee, I think it would cost literally a couple of hundred million dollars."
'Highly contagious'
Dr Treve Williams from the Randwick Equine Centre is caring for the horses quarantined in Sydney.
He says an outbreak of the flu could devastate the thoroughbred racing industry.
"It's very highly contagious, with a very short incubation period of only between one and three days," he said.
"Unfortunately, one of the problems is that as horses recover, most of them lose form, so it has major potential, if it gets into a racing population, to produce havoc."
But Mr Gilkerson says the quarantining of the stallions proves the effectiveness of the system designed to prevent horse flu from entering Australia.
"We're one of two countries worldwide that doesn't have endemic equine flu," he said.
"The pre-export quarantine protocols and post-arrivals protocols that have been in place for a number of years have been very successful and EVA wholeheartedly supports it."
Japan's horse flu outbreak could affect entries for the Melbourne Cup this November.
August 23, 2007
- Audio: Horses quarantined after flu discovery (AM)
- Map: Eastern Creek 2766
- Related Story: 'No evidence' of equine flu virus
- Related Story: Horse flu feared in Aust thoroughbreds
Australia's horse breeding industry stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars due to a suspected case of equine influenza.
A thoroughbred stallion being held in quarantine at Eastern Creek in western Sydney is showing clinical signs consistent with horse flu.
All 52 thoroughbreds at the centre will remain in quarantine for 30 days as a result.
Another 27 horses in quarantine at Spotswood in Melbourne will also be held for 30 days because some of them travelled to Australia with the stallions at Eastern Creek.
Most of the horses were set to be taken to the upper Hunter region ahead of next week's thoroughbred breeding season.
The federal Agriculture Minister, Peter McGauran, says all of the animals will be held until they are cleared of equine influenza, a move which will be a major financial blow to the stud industry.
"Most of them would serve about five mares a day," he said.
"A number of these stallions are between $100,000 and $200,000 per serve, so you can quickly do the arithmetic and see that millions of dollars are being lost by these top stallions."
Mr McGauran says it is still unclear whether the affected stallion is from Japan, where an outbreak of equine flu is reported to have cost the country's racing industry $500,000.
He says testing of all the horses will continue, and warns the 30-day quarantine period will start again if other cases are found.
Industry chaos
The president of the Australian Equine Veterinarians Association (EVA) says all sectors of Australia's multi-billion-dollar horse industry would come to a standstill if horse flu took hold.
James Gilkerson says the seriousness of the situation in Australia cannot be downplayed.
"The horse industry in Australia is at least a $9 billion-dollar-a-year industry," he said.
"If we had an outbreak of equine influenza that spread in a couple of states in eastern Australia, you would shut down all racing, all standard-bred racing, all gymkhanas, pony clubs. All horse movements would be stopped."
The president of Australian Thoroughbred Breeders, John Messara, agrees that the cost to the industry could be immense.
"Those stallions that are caught in quarantine have books totalling about 4,000 to 5,000 mares," he said.
"If none of those were to be served and all those mares had to find Australian stallions at a lower fee, I think it would cost literally a couple of hundred million dollars."
'Highly contagious'
Dr Treve Williams from the Randwick Equine Centre is caring for the horses quarantined in Sydney.
He says an outbreak of the flu could devastate the thoroughbred racing industry.
"It's very highly contagious, with a very short incubation period of only between one and three days," he said.
"Unfortunately, one of the problems is that as horses recover, most of them lose form, so it has major potential, if it gets into a racing population, to produce havoc."
But Mr Gilkerson says the quarantining of the stallions proves the effectiveness of the system designed to prevent horse flu from entering Australia.
"We're one of two countries worldwide that doesn't have endemic equine flu," he said.
"The pre-export quarantine protocols and post-arrivals protocols that have been in place for a number of years have been very successful and EVA wholeheartedly supports it."
Japan's horse flu outbreak could affect entries for the Melbourne Cup this November.
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</dt--><DD><!--strong>Former Australian Captain</strong --><CITE>August 24, 2007</CITE> </DD></DL><!-- // author -->
</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"> Sunday, 26 August 2007 
</TD><TD width=*>Equine Influenza, Australia<!-- #BeginEditable "content" --><!-- public/single_report.inc --><!-- full_event_report.inc --><!--$Id: full_event_report.inc,v 1.13 2007/07/12 13:18:58 angus Exp $--><SCRIPT language=javascript>function validate_map_click(a){ if(document.mapform.button_action.value=='identify ') { document.mapform.target='query_window'; } else { document.mapform.target='map_window'; window.open('about:blank','map_window','directorie s=no,height=700,location=no,menubar=no,resizable=y es,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=no,width=640, top=1,left=1'); return true; } if(!(document.mapform.button_action.value=='zoom_i n' || document.mapform.button_action.value=='pan' || document.mapform.button_action.value=='identify')) { alert('Select an action button on the right before clicking on the map'); return false; } else { if (document.mapform.button_action.value=='identify') window.open('about:blank','query_window','director ies=no,height=320,location=no,menubar=no,resizable =yes,scrollbars=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,width=320 ,top=50,left=1'); return true; }}</SCRIPT><!--$Id: ms_public_base_map.inc,v 1.16 2007/07/26 03:18:20 ben Exp $Produces regional map with basic layers and colours--><!--$Id: ms_public_layers.inc,v 1.11 2007/02/21 02:25:54 ben Exp $Produces regional map default layers and colours.This is basically static information, which will appear if requested below a certain scale.Note that is assumes the /maptools includes is already loaded --><!--$Id: ms_public_admin_borders.inc,v 1.13 2007/02/07 05:07:23 ben Exp $Draws the admin boundaries back onto the map. --><!-- ms_public_admin_borders.inc ends --><SCRIPT language=javascript>function open_report(repid) { rwin=window.open("public.php?page=single_report&po p=1&reportid="+repid,"rwin","resizable=1,menubar=y es,location=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=yes,directori es=no");}</SCRIPT>
This is a good site for Australian horse breeders,owners and interested individuals
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