Tasmanian DPI Update.

There has been a minor change to the biosecurity plan template for non-racing events with 10 or more horses. The updated version should be on our website shortly. The change is to item 12.3 on the template. In short, it clarifies that, if a horse has a slightly raised temperature when it’s checked by the vet on arrival at the event site, the vet does not necessarily have to take the drastic action of locking the entire event down while the horse is further examined. It spells out that the vet may, providing there are no other clinical signs consistent with EI, simply isolate that horse (and any other horse that arrived in the same float/truck) and retake the temperature a little later. This minor change arises from a couple of horses that arrived at the Longford show last weekend with a slightly raised temperature. The examining vet judged that the cause was likely to have been “over rugging” and was proven right when the temperatures fell back to normal after a short period of isolation (unrugged) - without major disruption to the rest of the horses at the show!

Please note that tomorrow (Thursday) is a public holiday in the south. The disease control centre at New Town will not be operational. Any calls coming into the centre will be redirected to our animal health staff in the north and the all hours hotline for reporting any signs of EI – 1800 675 888 – will remain open.

Barry Calderbank