A comment on "Sensible solution"?

It may be a rich man's sport in Europe, but it isn't in the States, and no one wants to know about your EI vaccine status unless you are going to EFA type events. It is ~$15 -20 and most of the time the vaccine is scheduled with other things and not just a vaccine. It is the protocol and the government agencies that are making this so expensive.

If the current vaccine protocol is going to be continued at the current rate then don't worry, they will never get to you. A colleague said that he vaccinated 38 horses in one day with his group. At that rate and 650,000 horses in Australia and say 20 vaccination groups even per state it would take ~150 working days to do all the horses in Australia. In the States we had a threat of Venezuelan equine encephalitis. Vets were given the vaccine and a simple certificate book which held the age breed sex and name of the horse and owner. There were about 10 horses per page and then the owners called our clinic if they wanted the vaccine and we made trips to various areas and vaccinated horses. In two weeks we did about 6,000 horses along with the other emergencies and that was just my dad alone. The government paid him $6 per horse. Different virus but very effective vaccination plan. Owners were happy and the vets were happy and a very high percentage of the population got immunity from the disease and it really did halt the progression.

I think it is a bit rich to say that the lousy money hungry vets and the vaccine companies will get rich and that is bad. I want to thank the vaccine companies for having the vaccines available and I want to thank any vet will come to vaccinate the horses. In case you haven't noticed there is a rural vet crisis and there are darn few of us here to even do it right now.

I am vet and I am saying just let vets, or even someone else, sell the vaccine and not try to kill a fat hog in every dose. After a year or so EI will not (if we have a good distribution of vaccine) be a big deal and I will not, for one, be suggesting that my client who put on shows require verification of vaccine. In my practice in the States maybe 10 % vaccinated twice a year and 5% 3-4 times per year. I saw maybe one EI case a year. I certainly saw more than one case of rhino abortion per year and occasionally the odd case of neurological rhino (you really don't want that one) and yet no one asks for certificates for rhino immunization at shows.

You have been inundated with hype about the vaccine and its drawbacks. Those same nay-sayers are now trying to buy more vaccine. You have been told that EI vaccine will make horse owning too expensive. It doesn't need to be like that. Ask American horse owners. It is not the vaccine that will make it expensive, it is the bureaucratic regulation that will make horse owning more expensive. You need to demand a vaccine that is affordable and you need to protect your horses and that doesn’t need to cost as much as your new saddle pad, joint meds or the chiro. (you didn’t think I was going to mention ) vets did you.

I don't want it to become endemic like many suggest, but folks look and demographics and look at the graphs. If this is the eradication plan and the graphs are on target then I would hate to see the graph if it wasn't working. (happy to supply you with my graph I keep daily).
Elizabeth Woolsey Herbert.