EI Inquiry: Maitland event key to EI spread

SYDNEY -The Ausvetplan -- a contingency plan for an Equine Influenza outbreak – was in draft form at approval stage with Animal Health Australia when the crisis erupted on August 17, the Callinan inquiry heard this week.
The inquiry heard that 40,000 horses were infected in NSW within nine weeks.

James Gilkerson, senior lecturer in veterinary microbiology and head of the Equine Infectious Diseases Laboratory in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Melbourne, said it was most likely that the first infected horses co-mingled with other horses at a Maitland equestrian event on August 19.

Gilkerson gave some 80 media interviews and agreed he could have spoken to a reporter at the Tasmanian Times and stated that the most likely scenario was escape of the virus through someone coming into contact with an infected horse at Eastern Creek Quarantine Station and then going to Centennial Park.

However, Gilkerson said his comments were made before the epidemiological importance of the Maitland event became very apparent.
He said it was more likely the trace-back was to the Maitland event and the Centennial Park horses were not necessarily the first horses infected outside Eastern Creek.

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