Considerations Against Compulsory Equine Influenza Vaccination For Individual Pleasure and Sporting Horse Owners

The attached information should be of interest to all horse owners, giving some perspective to the vaccination issue. It may also assist individual horse owners when attending public EI meetings. Please feel free to use this information in any way you desire.

Kind Regards

Erich

(Proud Horse owner and trail horse rider)

• Horses will need to be vaccinated every year (1 or 2 times) at a substantial cost.
• Horses will have to be microchipped and/or registered, etc. at a cost.
• There will be a considerable management and administration cost for a compulsory vaccination scheme, which will probably need to be borne by tax payers.
• The repeated annual expense of compulsory vaccination will seriously disadvantage typical pleasure and sporting horse owners who are not able to take advantage of the taxation concessions available to commercial enterprises such as horse racing organisations, commercial horse breeding and training enterprises, etc.
• The financial burden of compulsory vaccinations will undoubtedly force many pleasure and sporting horse owners to abandon horse ownership altogether, resulting in a marked reduction in pleasure and sporting horse numbers.
• The financial and social flow on effect of this reduction in horse ownership will have wide-reaching consequences for all non-profit pleasure and sporting horse organisations and impact on virtually all equine activities other than Horse Racing, from trail horse riding to campdrafting, rodeo and pony club activities, etc.
• It will cause serious irreparable damage to the entire general horse industry, (again, with the exception of the Horse Racing Industry), including feed producers, feed merchants, horse equipment suppliers, float manufacturers, saddlers, equine veterinary goods suppliers, farriers, horse trainers and veterinarians, etc., etc.
• Both, from a financial and disease control perspective, compulsory vaccination is of no benefit to typical pleasure or sporting horse owners with one or two horses.
• Vaccinated horses do not gain complete immunity from EI and will still transmit the EI virus. They are still likely to contract EI although usually in a milder form and are still capable to pass the EI virus on to other horses.
• There is also the question of vaccination response mutation of the EI virus in vaccinated horses, with the possibility of development of more potent EI virus strains as a result of viral adaptation!
• According to expert scientific observation non-vaccinated horses, which contract EI gain a higher degree of immunity from the disease, than vaccinated horses.
• EI is only a temporarily debilitating equine disease, similar to human influenza, with a potentially higher risk of secondary complications in young foals and older animals with compromised immune systems. It stands to reason, that owners of horses with weakened immune systems may wish to vaccinate at their discretion. As with the voluntary vaccination of horses against Tetanus and Strangles, both of which are potentially fatal, owners may prefer to vaccinate against EI as a matter of personal choice.
• This combination of poor immunity, antigenic drift and the use of out of date or wrong subtype vaccines gives rise to a real problem when confronted with this disease. Vaccinated horses will be reinfected and as they have some protection they will show few if any symptoms (ie be subclinical) but still shed virus and be a source of new infections. This makes detection more difficult and more expensive as we have to rely on a wider range of laboratory tests.
• In the face of an outbreak there is the confusion created with positive blood results as to whether they are due to vaccine or natural infection. In those countries where vaccination is practised there are regular episodes of disease and every five or so years there is a major outbreak.
• It must be pointed out that vaccination on its own has not ever resulted in EI eradication. It may have a place alongside stringent biosecurity measures and movement controls.
• Vaccination may be used to protect animals in certain sub sectors /regions of the horse industry and /or to reduce the economic impact of this disease.
Advantages and disadvantages of vaccination for EI
• Advantages
• Vaccination can prevent clinical disease.
• Vaccination reduces the susceptibility of at-risk horses, reduces the severity of clinical signs and the level of viral shedding if they become infected.
• Vaccination can reduce farm-to-farm spread of infection.
• Disadvantages
• Vaccination may mask clinical signs so vaccinated horses will need to be identified and monitored for evidence of infection.
• Serological monitoring will be difficult, even though tests are available to differentiate vaccinated horses. Some tests used in this respect may not be internationally validated.
• The movement of sub-clinically infected vaccinated horses may spread infection to previously unaffected areas.
• Vaccination may prolong the need for movement restrictions because it may slow the transmission and spread of infection within areas.
• Vaccinating selected regions will lead to the country being separated into free and vaccinated areas. This will result in differential movement requirements and the need for infrastructure (permits, border controls, etc) to maintain integrity of free areas.
• Vaccination will have an impact in terms of registration and passport issues and the practical control measures required before many horse events can proceed.
• Vaccination is not an immediate option, it will take time to import vaccine (permit process), deploy vaccine and train vaccinators, vaccinate the population and for immunity to develop.
• In the case of the recombinant vaccine there may difficulties with its registration and there would likely be restrictions placed on how and who may use the vaccine.
• Vaccination may affect performance in the short term.
• Vaccine use is likely to extend the duration of an outbreak and delay ability to declare freedom.
• Compulsory EI vaccination for non-commercial horse owners makes little sense from a disease control or financial perspective. The decision to vaccinate should therefore be left to individual horse owners as it is the case with humans choosing to vaccinate or not against the human influenza virus!.
• The Racing Industry represents a vast network of for profit only commercial enterprises based on horse racing and horse breeding and associated business enterprises, all enjoying generous taxation privileges,
• Monitored obligatory vaccination for the Horse Racing Industry is likely to offer a high degree of protection across the entire Industry. I will enhance the Industry’s ability to meet future scheduled race meetings and large-scale events and reduce interruptions of race horse breeding activities. With enormous financial interests to protect, a large payroll and a massive financial flow-on to the general community, compulsory vaccination for the Racing Industry does make sense, particularly in view of the industry’s ability to offset vaccination expenses through existing generous taxation concessions.
• The Race Horse Industry therefor bears no relationship whatsoever, to the large number of Australian pleasure and sporting horse owners, who enjoy a special relationship with their horses for which they care without any kind of taxation relief or governmental assistance.
• It is important to remember that the Horse Racing Industry comprises a vast network of tight-knit (for-profit only) business enterprises whose activities are solely based on the utilisation of horses for commercial purposes. Horses are valued entirely on a commercial return/performance basis. Sentimental consideration have no place in this Industry as is evidenced by the large-scale disposal “non-performing” animals, whose cost of breeding, feeding, training and eventual Disposal are all tax deductible to the Industry!
• In essence The Horse Racing Industry represents a large-scale self-contained commercial enterprise system based on the commercial utilisation of horses, which sets it completely apart from the large number of individual Australian horse lovers. With minimum contact between Racing Industry horses and the pleasure/sporting horses of the wider horse owners community, the Racing Industry is well-positioned to maintain a state of self-managed quarantine system, further strengthened by obligatory vaccination of its livestock. Risk management would be further enhanced through the exclusive engagement of Racing Industry veterinarians and farriers.

Erich Raab
B.App.Sc (Sys Ag), M.App.Sc. (Env. Hlth) Dip. Comm.
Member of ATHRA and Lake Macquarie Pack & Trail Horse Riders