Outraged of Armidale

Well-known Riding Pony breeder, exhibitor and judge, Deborah Bell from Armidale in NSW considers the dissemination of information regarding EI in her area “appalling, especially if you don’t happen to be on the internet, which I am at the moment about ten times a day. I rang up the local ABC radio station and explained that I had someone let out from Narrabri just two kilometers away and if that horse became infectious, my horses could get it here. They really thought Deborah from Armidale was a dubious caller, until a man rang in and said I was right. The general level of knowledge about EI and its very contagious nature is not good and there is no doubt bio-security measures have been breached.

“I don’t think people realise how desperately serious it is for studs. I have 50 horses here including five stallions and broodmares. If they get a sufficiently severe bout of EI, the mares can abort and the stallions become impotent for a length of time. We are in a slightly happier position here as we are not entirely dependent on income from the horses, but I sell about a dozen ponies a year and have about half a dozen broodmares in, and it all contributes. Who is going to be liable for the vet bills if EI gets in, and quite a few of us have sought legal advice about the situation.

“On the internet blog, people are saying we must stop attributing blame. But what we must do is take a step back and look at the situation, and people must be held accountable. I heard on the ABC that AQIS blamed the Randwick outbreak on one person who went there from Centennial Park. The Randwick outbreak is due to AQIS mismanagement. And if you step back from that you have the shuttle stallions, only here because the Thoroughbred industry does not accept AI. I heard a leading light from the Thoroughbred industry on national radio the other day, explaining that they could not have AI because then you would have 500 horses by the one sire. I had visions of a stallion going around the countryside spraying ejaculate; it’s just a ludicrous argument. They say AI Thoroughbreds won’t be accepted internationally, which is true. But Australia has a large Thoroughbred industry (in fact we have the second largest number of registered Thoroughbreds in the world), surely we have some say on the international stage.

“We have to find out where the breakdown was and if it is attributable to a government agency, then they are just going to have to wear it. We are no longer a nice island, we are part of a global village and must act accordingly”.