AQUIS - What quarantine?

It is interesting reading the transcript from the government enquiry into the reason for the EI outbreak in Australia ( the website isprovided on one of your blogs). It seems that the shuttle stallions that come here from overseas only have to stay in post arrival quarantine for 14 or 21 days! They are supposed to have been recently vaccinated but given that a vaccinated horse can still carry the disease, I would have thought that 14 days is cutting it RATHER FINE,considering our EI infected horses here are now being quarantined aLOT longer than that. I have seen various estimates of how long an infected horse still excretes the virus for. Some saying 15 days from the first signs of illness & some saying 30 days. A

lso I note ( fromthe Horsedeals article) that the virus survives in water for up to 18 days. So I would assume that if a horse comes in carrying the virus then it is very likely it is going to be released from quarantine before it has got rid of it, especially if it is vaccinated as it may show no clinical signs but still be carrying it. It's a wonder we haven't had an outbreak before this! I realize that the horses doundergo some sort of pre departure quarantine in the country of origin but how do we know how secure that has been? I would also like to know if the race horses that come from overseas for the Melbourne Cup are quarantined at all, because how do they stay fit enough for the race if they are in quarantine for a number of weeks?????

We are lucky, being in Victoria & so far EI free & hope to remain that way. We are mini horse breeders & have around 30 horses (many own more than this) so compulsory vaccinations at $200 per horse per year would mean we would be no longer viable.

Thanks, Horsedeals, your articles, updates & peoples blogs on EIprovide interesting reading and much information.

Diane Cotton