Equine Influenza

If this outbreak of equine influenza is a dress rehearsal for an even more disastrous epidemic, then the Government’s agencies response has been lamentable. On a local level information is being disseminated more on talkback radio than anything else- the DPI tries to put a positive spin on all their output on matter how unpleasant. I imagine they have the perpetrator of the “risk assessment” at Narrabri in a good witness protection program. Why were the 400 horses from Narrabri, despite being in contact with infected horses, let go to all points of the compass on Sunday 26th of August, when the horses Moonbi were in lockdown on Saturday morning? Why were the problems associated with airborne transmission only brought to the public’s attention on talkback radio?

The disparagingly termed “leisure horse industry” is paying a very high price for the ability of a few individuals to make a lot of money from shuttle stallions. I might add here that we work our cattle with stock horses and breed around a dozen show horses a year. The mortality rate on other studs is now making itself apparent, and it is not good.

Initially this problem would be avoided with the use of A.I. which all other equine breeds use with great success. This is not the 80’s, Greed is not Good, the thoroughbred industry, internationally and locally, should be brought kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century.

Deborah Bell Armidale NSW