Tasmanian Update 2.30 pm Saturday

Folks The horse standstill is NOT being lifted at this stage.

We are currently investigating suspect horses on 2 new properties in the north west. The horses have been inspected by an experienced horse vet and he has reported that the horses have mild signs that are “consistent with equine flu”. In short, that means it could be one of a number of things, including EI. Blood samples and nasal swabs have been taken for testing at Mt Pleasant and Geelong.

These new suspect cases came up in the tracing and surveillance we are doing from the DPIW disease control centre. The standstill means that the race meetings scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday are off and all other horse events scheduled for at least the next few days are off as well. The situation will be reviewed as we get more information about the health of these new suspect horses. We understand that extending the standstill will inconvenience some horse owners and apologise for that.

But the standstill is a precaution that is absolutely necessary at this stage.

I’ll email you again if/when anything significant develops.

Best wishes

Barry Calderbank
CommunicationsBiosecurity and Product IntegrityDPIW
New Town