EI UPDATE

14th November 2007
The EFA NSW attended two meetings yesterday with the DPI.

For Purple Zone only competitions the EFA NSW and the DPI have established the following set of protocols to enable competition in this zone to get up and running as soon as possible. Only horses from within the Purple Zone may attend. Click here for protocols.

Regarding inter-zonal competitions, the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Disease (CCEAD) is meeting at the end of this week to establish policy enabling us to run competitions involving horses from differing zones and states to attend events. We will advise as to the progress of this as soon as information comes to hand. The CCEAD is composed of vets who are tasked to act in the interest of the state they represent. This means that it is difficult to adopt protocols which suit everyone equally. Inevitably those states which are infected with EI pose a threat to those who are not yet infected and this makes finding a way forward a complex issue.

In the interests of equity between all EFA members, we will be writing to the State Minister for Primary Industry, Hon. Ian Macdonald, requesting that the government cover the costs of vaccinations, micro-chipping and blood tests for EFA members. This idea was supported by other participants in the meetings who were representative of the majority of the sport and leisure horse industry.