MESSAGE TO INDUSTRY FROM THE AUSTRALIAN HORSE INDUSTRY COUNCIL

The Australian Horse Industry Council (AHIC) is a national peak body representing the Australian horse industry. The AHIC represents and promotes, at the federal level, the interests of all persons involved with horses and issues pertaining to the health and welfare of horses; personal safety of horse users; and other issues that can have widespread effects across the horse industry.

The main role of the AHIC is to provide a voice for the interests of horses and horse owners in national forums. The Australian horse industry includes many diverse groups. The issues affecting those groups are more effectively managed and addressed by a single body, rather than a multitude of organisations. A key objective of the AHIC is to address those issues common to the horse industry across Australia.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE ROLE OF AHIC DURING THE EI OUTBREAK?

AHIC has been involved at the forefront of negotiating better outcomes for the national horse industry through effective representation; ongoing communication with stakeholders; ensuring horse welfare; and lobbying for better outcomes for all horse industry participants.

Representation

• During the recent outbreak, the role of the AHIC has been to ensure that the voice of the recreational horse industry has been represented effectively at both a national and state level. Representation has included the following:Direct representation by the AHIC President, Dr Barry Smyth, on the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Disease (CCEAD) and National Management Group (NMG), the primary Federal Government response groups on EI;
• Direct face to face meetings and ongoing liaison with Minister McGauran, the Federal Minister responsible for the management of the EI outbreak at a national level;
• Direct representation on the NSW Government’s Ministerial Equine Influenza Response Group;
• Direct face to face meetings and ongoing liaison with the NSW DPI and Queensland DPI
• Ongoing liaison with other key industry bodies representing the recreational horse industry, including EFA National and EFA NSW.

In addition AHIC has prepared submissions to Minister McGauran on the impact of EI on the horse industry and is involved with ongoing representation and liaison with other key stakeholders in the industry.

AHIC has played a key role in assisting government departments responsible for the emergency response to collate information; resource projects; coordinate specific strategies and generally provide valuable assistance in working towards successful outcomes.

Ongoing effective communications strategy

Another key objective of AHIC is to liaise effectively with stakeholders to communicate key strategies and developments during the EI outbreak. Communications on all aspects of the EI outbreak have been regularly forwarded to members and are also distributed via the Horse Emergency Contact Database (HECD). This Database was established and is managed by AHIC for the specific purpose of assisting with emergency responses such as the EI outbreak.

AHIC has been working hard to respond to queries from industry; address ongoing issues; communicate important developments; and generally be viewed as a credible source of advice and information. Evidence of the success of this strategy has been demonstrated by both government and stakeholders continued referral to AHIC for advice and ongoing support.

Assisting industry participants

AHIC is aware that the Equine Influenza outbreak has impacted negatively on the industry. AHIC is committed to ensuring that all steps are taken to mitigate the economic downturn faced by the industry. This includes direct lobbying of Minister McGauran to increase the level of federal government assistance made available to the horse industry.

AHIC has also played a key role in helping industry identify direct and consequential losses incurred as a result of this outbreak. AHIC’s economic impact survey has been an important tool in quantifying industry losses. This information has been submitted to government for consideration with requests for immediate additional assistance to be made to industry. Direct face to face meetings between AHIC President and Minister McGauran have taken place on several occasions to ensure that the voice of industry is heard and that government is aware of the economic hardship faced by many affected by EI. AHIC will continue to lobby government for improved outcomes for industry members and participants.

FURTHER INFORMATION FOR INDUSTRY

What is the framework for managing the EI response?

The emergency response is being handled under the Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement (EADRA) and its Cost Sharing Arrangements (CSA). EADRA is a contractual instrument between the Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments, and peak national livestock industry groups. EADRA sets out clearly responsibilities for the individual parties to the contract and these are overseen by Animal Health Australia (another government/industry alliance). CSA apply only to costs directly related to the emergency response to eradicate EI, they do not apply to any consequential losses from EI infection or the emergency response. These consequential losses are where the various government assistance packages are aimed. Horse owners do not have to contribute towards alleviating consequential losses.

Once an emergency animal disease situation has been declared, a response must be formulated. There is an agreement between Governments and the horse industry that the response to this EI incursion will be under the terms of EADRA. This ensures that the Government will mobilise all necessary measures to help industry to cope with the disease incursion.
The ultimate aims of EADRA are identification, containment, control and eventual eradication of the emergency disease from Australia. Industry does not have access to the resources to tackle an emergency disease outbreak on its own. Initially all costs are met by Government, and industry pays back a share of the cost according to a formula based on the importance of the disease to human health and to its effects on the national economy.

Any response plan under EADRA must be formulated by the relevant CVOs (in both affected and unaffected jurisdictions) and submitted to the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Disease (CCEAD) for discussion and ratification. The relevant AUSVETPLAN manual is the technical guide used to formulate the response plan.

Any plans formulated and approved by CCEAD must then be sent for evaluation to the National Emergency Animal Disease Management Group (NMG) for final approval. This ultimate arbiter has an oversight role to ensure that things remain on track and are kept within budget.
The key objective of AUSVETPLAN IS containment and eradication
The initial strategy of movement stand still within the affected states has been very successful in containing the EI infection to a relatively limited area of NSW and QLD. While EI infections continue in the horse population, they are confined to the known areas of NSW and QLD. At this time, there have been no infections detected in other states or territories.
To supplement the containment strategy, CVOs in NSW and QLD have instituted a targeted vaccination program in buffer zones around the areas of known infection. This is aimed at providing a population of horses that will be immune to EI and markedly reduce chances of spread beyond the buffer zones.

Vaccination could not have commenced any sooner in the outbreak. The EI virus had to be identified so that the most appropriate vaccine could be chosen. Approval for emergency registration of the most appropriate vaccine had to be obtained and the appropriate permits issued. This was all achieved within the first month of the emergency. Under usual circumstances, approval for importation and use of a vaccine takes many months.

Costs of the Emergency Response

On the matter of costs, the shares of the EI emergency response are divided between the Federal (10%), State and Territory Governments (10%) and the horse industry (80%). Horse owners will pay an equal amount no matter what type of horse they own. It is important to realise that only costs directly related to containment and eradication of the EI outbreak are eligible for cost sharing.

Consequential losses from EI infection and the control measures are not included under cost sharing and industry is not liable for those. So costs associated with business disruption, loss of employment, loss of income and so on are not part of the costs to be paid for by industry.
AHIC considers that there needs to be a re-examination of the categorization of EI given the significant economic impact demonstrated in the current outbreak.

The Near Future

EI will continue to circulate in Australia’s naïve horses in the containment areas in the short term. Parallel with this will be increasing immunity in the surrounding population from natural infection and the vaccination program. Natural infection will impart better immunity than any vaccine. The hot dry summer weather is almost upon us and that will also help control the emergency by reducing chances of the EI virus surviving in the environment.

Experience in other countries is that emergency disease situations caused by EI infection last many months. The disease is controlled in countries where EI is endemic much more quickly because there is some underlying immunity from previous infection or vaccination. Importantly, vaccination programs seem to ensure that EI continues to circulate and make eradication programs more prolonged. The time of eradication of EI is also more difficult to predict in the face of vaccination.

The Long Term

Any predictions about when normal horse industry activities can resume completely are uncertain at the moment. Most of Australia remains free from EI infection and so resumption of events and gatherings should be feasible within the next couple of months assuming that EI does not escape from the current containment areas. It will take considerable co-operation and vigilance from all horse industry participants to contain the infection to the known areas of NSW and QLD. Some projections are that with due attention to biosecurity combined with immunity from disease and vaccination the current EI outbreak will be over by 2008.

Many horse industry participants have suffered severe business disruptions over the past few weeks, with some suffering irreparable damage to their operations. Many individual horse owners in all sectors have been seriously affected by EI and its repercussions. It is important to realise that this mirrors what has happened in other countries.

On an encouraging note, in all cases the horse industry has recovered to continue operations. There is no doubt that the Australian horse industry will bounce back. What is certain is that there will need to be a much more comprehensive oversight of horse industry activities in the future, with a national scheme of identification and registration of all horses, cohesive efforts to work together on all issues, and more public education and awareness of the vulnerability of the industry.

AHIC will continue to represent all participants in the horse industry on all issues that are relevant to the well being and needs of horses, as well as the many businesses and individuals involved in the industry across the country.

Barry Smyth
President