Equine Influenza Human Impacts Survey - closes Dec 7

Equine Influenza (EI) came unannounced into Australia 3 months ago. In that short time it has caused significant disruption to the normal horse industry activities of spring, and this is likely to continue to some degree through the coming summer into 2008. The aim is to have the disease eradicated from Australia before mid 2008. As a result many livelihoods and activities have been turned upside down. The economic costs will be inestimable, and the human cost hidden and difficult to quantify. To assist the horse industry to calculate an idea of the effects of disruption caused by the EI emergency, the University of Western Sydney has put together a survey to enable horse industry participants to provide data about their experiences during the past 3 months. You can access the survey at the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=XHWoJwNHnPExBCj0sdt1iA_3d_3d AHIC urges you to participate and provide data for analysis. The survey is anonymous and the results will be used to inform industry and government about the flow on effects of an emergency disease outbreak in Australia. There have been similar studies in other countries, and results from this study will enable some comparisons with those other studies. Contact details of the researchers are provided, and I urge you to contact them directly if you have any questions or need clarification. Yours sincerely, Dr Barry Smyth President Australian Horse Industry Council.

Copyright 2005 Australian Horse Industry Council