Current situation in Tasmania

Situation report – as at 12.30 pm on Friday 12 October


A horse in the North West is highly suspect for equine influenza. The first round of lab test results have been inconclusive – 2 positive results and 2 negatives. Fresh samples are being taken from the horse today and further lab tests will be done.

In the meantime, we are contacting the owners of all horses that have had contact with the suspect horse recently. If this is equine influenza, we would expect some of these other horses to be showing signs of the disease by now.

As a precaution, the horse standstill was reinstated at 17.30 hrs on Thursday 11 October. This means that all horses throughout Tasmania must remain on their current properties until further notice. Tasmania Police are out on the roads enforcing the standstill. We are aware that the standstill will cause some difficulties for horse owners, but it is absolutely necessary at this stage. We will ease it as soon as we can do so safely.