Uninfected horses in red and purple zones

It is really hard to make some planning decisions in the control of EI because we have no accurate figures of where horses are. It's ok to say we should have a national database - the reality is we are having to control a complex disease with imperfect information.

We are now analysing the data received from the AHIC on properties still uninfected in red and purple zones. Many thanks to everyone who replied. We repeat - this is not a register of horses that require vaccination. We wanted to identify areas where there are pockets of uninfected horses and approximately how many properties and horses are involved. We can then estimate the requirements of staffing and vaccine for the next stage of our control program.

There were 1782 properties in the database with about 13,000 horses uninfected. We are currently going through the data to remove duplicated entries. We are not sure why some people entered their properties up to four times. The owners with uninfected horses who did not register will have just as much right to have their horses vaccinated as those that registered.

There are some big pockets of uninfected horses and we are putting together teams to start vaccinating all horses in these areas. The DPI wishes to vaccinate all uninfected horses in red and purple zones at the expense of the control program. This will take some weeks so we are having to schedule vaccination priorities. This will be a big job - all horses will have to be microchipped. The vaccinating teams are going to have to use strict biosecurity to prevent spreading infection - these horses are uninfected and need to remain so.

The highest priority will be to vaccinate uninfected horses just inside the existing buffer zones to strengthen the buffers. Secondly, we will target high risk, high value horses. Some of these will be where horses are used in businesses or in studs. Others will be performance horses - the EFA is identifying and vaccinating their horses. DPI and EFA will be liaising so that there will not be multiple visits - we plan that the EFA teams will do all eligible horses when they visit eligible properties. Multiple visits by vaccinating teams increases the risk of transfer of infection.

Vaccine supplies permitting (and we have ordered more ) we plan to vaccinate all horses in red and purple zones.

Rod Hoare

Industry Liaison