EI

Re: Equine Influenza Strategy 16/10/2007
To Whom It May Concern:

The outbreak of influenza has not only devastated the Thoroughbred industry in Australia, it has devastated the pleasure horse industry, the “service provider” industry (I am member of this industry) and it has decimated the primary industries in both a national and a state level. The credibility, on any level, of government to deal with this outbreak has been severely tarnished.

The “Austvetplan” is a poorly conceived and poorly implemented idea that was based on a viral outbreak that would be passed horse to horse. Its failings are blamed on the human bio-security breaches, and not on the failure of the plan to account for horse to human to horse.

The government agencies are run by people with agendas. Many want to keep the island influenza free and many want to fly the “Austvetplan” flag they conceived until the last horse in Australia gets influenza. The problem is that many, if not most, do not have a vested interest in the industry other than their areas of control. They are not really at the coal-face. They may even be veterinarians who don’t see horse owners and horses on a day to day basis. They have, and frankly, I have, misjudged the love and dedication that horse owners have toward their horses.

For most of the owners this is not at “arms length” relationship. This is not a Thoroughbred trainer who has forty horses under his charge, but lives away from the stable. This is a family that has four to ten horses that are right in the back yard. They look at the snotty noses, they record the temperatures, sometimes hourly, or they wait for the virus to hit. They see neighbours or friends get vaccine while they are excluded. These were people who would rather let their horses get the flu and suffer for the sake of keeping the country “influenza free” (much to my dismay) until the strategy from the various DPI’s was exposed as not a strategy to keep the flu from spreading, but a strategy to keep the racing industry going. This is a plan to protect one industry that was cloaked in the sheep’s wool of fighting the spread of the virus.

At that point even the slowest of the slow knew where the DPI’s interest and allegiance lay. At that point, and currently, few people have any respect for the state and even to some extent, the federal government authorities. Sadly that includes people from my profession as well.
So what do we do?

I feel that having governments deal with this catastrophe is like asking a tortoise to herd cats. The bureaucracy is just too slow and too entrenched in defending themselves and their plans to adequately deal with such a dynamic situation. We need people who are not married to a plan, but to the well being of all horses and all industries.

Might I suggest that we let economic forces have a go at solving this problem?

Influenza vaccine does not cause economic ruin in countries where it is endemic contrary to public opinion. In fact, the average horse owner would not even consider it to be anything more than just a normal and rather inexpensive cost of owning a horse. Compared to the cost of the dentist, farrier chiropractor, and dare I say, veterinarian, an influenza vaccine would not even register on the radar. Few horse owners in America even vaccinate more than once a year for influenza, and as a veterinarian, I did not recommend more than one influenza vaccination a year, unless the horse was competing and traveling to other horse venues. Some owners would vaccinate more than yearly, and some wouldn’t, but no one makes horse owners vaccinate. It is just smart preventive medicine.

So instead of forcing people to vaccinate, and instead of “not letting” people have access to vaccine, I suggest the government step out of the role of control and let market forces take over. Allow people to make their own choices and pay for their choices after an initial round of vaccines. Horse ownership is not a right and governments should not finance the protection of horses against such a virus.

There already is vaccine in Australia that is about as effective as influenza vaccine, and is and for a virus that has far more complications than equine influenza. Equine herpes virus causes flu like symptoms, occasional coital lesions on both stallions and mares, abortions and rarely paralysis and death. Only very few people vaccinate for herpes or “rhino” and there is no obligation to provide evidence of vaccination except when mares go to breeding studs. So, the government has no reason to say that letting the horse owning public decide to vaccinate (or not) has no precedence. You would be crazy not to vaccinate.

It is a myth to say that if influenza becomes endemic in Australia, it will lead to ruination of the industry.

It is a fact that the continuation of this plan and the preferential vaccination of valuable vs. the endangered horses will cause ruination of many industries.

I am currently visiting my father in California. Together we have over 75 years experience in endemic influenza country. Neither of us remembers when the flu stopped a single equine event yet we have both seen many cases of influenza.

I urge all of you to unite and demand that you be allowed to vaccinate your horses and be prepared to pay for it yourselves. The vaccine over in the States retails for about $15 dollars per dose. You might want to also demand that market forces get the cost down as well. A microchip will not offer any immunity. We do not need government or quasi government ( Horse Council) controls. We need money to be put into vaccine, not a team of people vaccinating one horse. Get real.

I have just attended a veterinary seminar about EI in the States last week. The consensus is that vaccine and acceptance is the way to go. They are shaking their heads at our eradication plan and the selective vaccinations.
Respectfully,
Elizabeth Woolsey Herbert DVM
Adelaide Plain Equine Clinic
Gawler SAwww.horsedoctor.org