Equine Influenza Meeting of Horse Owners

Equine Influenza Meeting of Horse Owners

Minutes of Meeting 27/9/07 Marburg

Meeting was opened at 7.20pm by Dr Vivian Edwards. Dr Edwards paid tribute to Peter Toft for initiating the meeting and advised tonight’s topics would be; - prevention, how EI affects a horse, and where to go from here.

He thanked Cameron Thompson and State Member Wayne Wendt for being present. Gave apologies for Paul Pissale. Announced that two Veterinarians Julian Willmore and Richard Toft would give discussions as well as Paul Wright from the DPI. Acknowledged Anna Bligh announcing today the EI as a Natural Disaster .

Peter thanked Dr Edwards, Horse Community for coming, Media & DPI for assisting with the Bio Security measures. Peter expressed dissatisfaction at the help and response given to some – and not others, expressing everyone had the same right. He was frustrated at the lack of information available on infected areas. Acknowledged vaccinations and funding should not solely be directed to the Racing and Harness industry but should flow to the pleasure industry as well. Peter received applause when he announced the multibillion dollar Pleasure Horse Industry had NO VOICE .

Commented the Govt has no records to work with. There are 250,000 horses in SEQ with 9,000 vaccinations. Peter said we need to come up with solutions, we need Govt’s full support and assistance, we need to give the Govt our full support. The Privacy policy has not helped the cause. Peter commented people like Farriers etc would have move on to find work and would not be around when the problem is over.

Peter introduced the Vets – Richard Toft and Julian Willmore.

Julian said he’d had 30 years experience with Racing and Performance horses. He spoke about how the influenza spread and the Infected Area being a wide spread area, and that the vaccination program has been bought forward with ‘live’ vaccinations arriving today, and that there would not be enough to vaccinate all. Spoke about containing the disease in the SEQ by setting up a buffer zone from maybe Gympie going West and down to Gundiwindi so when the disease hits this vaccinated area it will not spread further; while possibly vaccinating some race horses at the Gold Coast, Ipswich and Sunshine Coast. Horses need a primary dose and a 4 wk booster, with the horse being immune 6 weeks after the initial dose. Julian said it was difficult to come to agreement how long this will take.

Richard spoke on the Clinical Disease. Look after the aged and the very young. Said he has been involved with 1000 sick horses and not lost one. He said horses getting the flu now were not coping as well as the horses a few weeks ago. Commented this may be due to the warmer weather. Richard brought to attention the secondary problems of the disease, being impaction colic and stressed importance of fibre and bran in diet. He said to check foals 3 times a day. Antibiotics are only needed for a heavy nasal discharge or persistent fever. Stressed not to exercise horses, and do not underestimate the time needed for recovery (3 months), and indications are that it is a 7,8,9, or 10 month disease.

Dr Edwards asked for Questions.

*Someone questioned the Buffer Zone. *Would a foal be immune if the mare had the disease. *Infertility in Stallions. *Someone asked about compensation:- Dr Edwards said this would be discussed later. *Is there anything you can put in diet.

Dr Edwards thanked the media for promoting the best interests of the horse industry.

And introduced Paul Wright from the DPI

Paul Wright introduced himself as a humble cattleman from Tarome. He said it was difficult to work out where and how quickly the disease was spreading, and they were working on vaccinating low density areas of horses to make a buffer zone. They wanted to hold the disease away from the buffer zone for 6 weeks, so movement restrictions would stay in place. Relaxing the movement restrictions would undermine the efforts. Paul said he has recently been involved in the financial assessment of some businesses for hardship compensation.

Questions:- * brumbies. * Problems selling properties with horses on them. *Things the Govt will have to address in terms of losses.

*Bob expressed disappointment at Govt’s response and attendance of decision makers at this meeting, which was met with favourable response and applause from the community.

Steve Gray from the DPI spoke of the misinformation mailed out and now the buffer zone was extended. Spoke of Centrelink set up at Rosewood between 10-1pm for assistance, also at Gundiwindi, Warwick, Hendra

Steve Jones, the Mayor of Gatton (23 years experience as stock inspector with DPI) said people can lobby and do what the racehorse people are doing. He encouraged Peter to organise a group to get a voice to move ahead. Steve suggested Cameron Thompson take to John Howard a proposal to create a Bio Security Australia ( a stand alone department) and Wayne Wendt go to Anna Bligh.

He said there was a communication problem, and received applause when he said the people making the decisions didn’t have a clue what was going on.

He thank Paul for being there and acknowledged he was in a difficult position.

Peter said he would follow up with Cameron Thompson and Wayne Wendt and said he had received 100’s of impact statements from horse owners. Andrew Stevens spoke about being the 1^st property out of Warwick with the virus and wanted to set the record straight that the virus was on his place 5 days before the Warwick event which he contracted from Maitland. He spoke of the economic impact and the social impact it has had on his family, and said they have had 0 income since the onset.

The President of the Qld Endurance Riders Assoc spoke how the sport stoped overnight and the next year’s calendar was in jeopardy. He spoke of the financial impact with no memberships to pay for insurance etc.

Wayne Wendt (State Member) said he understands the pain people are going through, and that he was disappointed in the lack of senior Officials from the DPI attending. He acknowledged this section of the industry being overlooked, and said that needs to be addressed starting tomorrow. Give details to Peter or register. He said he will pass on impact statements and maintained this industry will not be forgotten. He said he would talk to the minister as soon as possible. He said he would have liked some more DPI experts at the meeting.

Peter said Australia and New Zealand were the only 2 countries without the Equine Influenza and that the Govt should be calling in experts from overseas for advice. He encouraged another meeting and acknowledged the difficulty in getting the pleasure industry people together.

Questions:

*Warwick Toft asked what was the value of the pleasure industry and how to find this out.

*What the Federal Govt is offering in assistance is embarrassing.

Vic Gough commented on all publicity being for the race industry, and that the race industry gets their money from the public.

Cameron Thompson (Federal Member) said the situation was unfolding very rapidly. It was very fast moving and the departments were struggling to keep up.

He stressed the need to organise very quickly a group from this room to act, and that he would like to be part of that group. He said there were many issues he had not heard of before tonight, like the 10 month period, the buffer etc. He said there were 150,000 doses on order. He acknowledged the group being part of a vibrant industry which is very diverse, and how difficult it is to understand such a diverse industry. He acknowledged the situation being a serious crisis and he suggested trying to put data together. He spoke of the Centrelink Support and Newstart Allowance. Cameron questioned the true depth of the impact and how we support this. He said the Govt have made some tentative steps but that they need to be informed further. He admitted he had not trigged to the impact of this disease until tonight.

Someone asked why it took Peter Toft to put on this meeting and not the DPI.

Cameron acknowledged that the AID is not sufficient.

Steve (Gatton Mayor) asked Wayne to organise a delegation with premier, and Cameron to organise delegation with Federal Minister or Deputy Prime Minister. Wayne committed to do that.

Dr Edwards thanked Cameron Thompson and Wayne Wendt.

Steve Gray from DPI reinforced the importance of registering of horses, and reassured that the top DPI technical people are working their butts off for solutions.

Richard Toft said this is an economic disease and needs an economist on decision making.

Dr Edwards thanked everyone at 9.45pm

Peter Toft said he would get together with a few selected people to find a workable way forward, and that we may need to have another meeting.