A return to racing disappoints trainers.

The plan to resume racing in six weeks at Randwick, which has been closed since late August due to equine influenza, doesn't sit well with trainers.

"Most were disappointed we weren't consulted and certainly surprised there will be enough horses in work in Sydney to support a meeting that day," Cummings said.

"We are all very keen to get back racing, no two ways about that, but Randwick has the imprimatur of quality racing, and to have a dumbed-down meeting for its return would be disappointing in every respect.
Racing people, everyone, have had enough disappointments already."

Read more.

Vaccination Uncertainty

Most of us have heard that Thoroughbreds in NSW were being vaccinated with the vaccine Proteq Flu two weeks apart. Earlier this week we learnt that Thoroughbreds in Queensland are being vaccinated twice, 28 days apart. This has come about by Queensland Vets noticing that on the bottles of the vaccine it states, “the second booster shot should be given 28 to 48 days apart, with a follow up shot in six months”. The Queensland Racing Board approached the vaccine manufactures, Merial and asked should they give the second shot two weeks after the first, or as the bottle states, after 28 days? Merial came back to the Racing Board after some investigating, and stated that they stand by the recommendations on the product.

Horse Deals contacted Merial and asked why the horses in Sydney were being given two shots two weeks apart? They explained the decision to do this was not done in consultation with them and it is not scientifically proven that giving the two shots two weeks apart would give horses in immediate danger of being infected greater immunity, as believed by NSW Racing. Merial said this may be the case but we will not know until a later date when testing can be done. It may prove that horses given the vaccine two weeks apart will need a third booster in three months rather than the recommended six months.

We then contacted Paul Dunstan, a country trainer in Victoria, who we knew had had his Thoroughbreds vaccinated and was waiting for them to have their second shot two weeks later. Paul said he had contacted his vet to ask when he was coming to give his horses their second vaccination. The vet told him that the second vaccine was now being administered six to eight weeks later due to a number of horses having an adverse reaction to the vaccine. Paul also explained to us that now he has vaccinated Thoroughbreds on his property, he is no longer allowed to take in “non-Thoroughbred” breakers, which are a big part of his business. If he wishes to take in new Thoroughbreds it must be done with VRC approval.

This morning Horse Deals received the following entry to the blog;
I was very happy (no actually I was beside myself) to have my horse (in a purple zone) receive his 1st vaccination today. When I enquired about the 2 week booster shot I was told, by the vet, that they (I assume the DPI) have now learned that a horse has more immunity if the booster is given 1 month after the 1st injection and then they don't require the 6 month injection. Does anyone else smell a rat?. Judy

So it looks like the EI circus continues to roll along, with as much uncertainty as the day it started over two months ago.

Canberra Royal Update

Thank you to all those who have entered horses. So far we have entries that have reached last years level. What an achievement and demonstration of how committed our exhibitors are.

Exhibition Park is the venue (showground) for the Royal Canberra Show. It is managed by a wholly owned ACT Government Authority called the Exhibition Park Corporation. The Show Society rents the park from the Exhibition Park Corporation for two weeks per year to stage the show.

There will be a lot of media talk around about the future of equestrian events at Exhibition Park in Canberra. The Exhibition Park Corporation has advised us today (26 October 2007) that there will be no equestrian events at Exhibition Park until further notice, due to the risks involved with Equine Influenza (EI).

Our position is this:
1. We do not accept that it is reasonable to ban events like Harness Racing, which only have vaccinated horses and have bio-security protocols in place.

2. Exhibition Park Corporation say that although the risk is low, they want zero risk. As we know, not even the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service can give you that
assurance.

3. We will commence negotiations with the relevant ACT Government Minister to have this decision altered.

4. We continue to believe that with NSW and Queensland proceeding to normalise horse racing from 1 December 2007, there will be a lot of progress re the expansion of green zones by the end of November. Warmer weather, increased vaccination around buffer zones and no further outbreaks will play a major role in achieving this.

5. Our next decision date will be around 6 December 2007. If, at that time, there is absolutely no chance of horses being free to travel by the end of February, then we will reassess our options and inform you immediately through our website (http://www.rncas.org.au/). However, if for instance NSW is declared all green and horses start to move across the state borders, then we will proceed with greater confidence.

6. The final comment is that we do not have a crystal ball and can’t tell what’s around the corner.

We don’t want to give up! The sooner we can safely get our horses back in the show ring, the better off we all will be. So bear with us, keep your chin up, keep the hygiene processes going and we will keep urging our Governments to be fair and reasonable in decisions affecting the recreational horse industry.

If you have any questions you can contact Mrs Amy Gorman in our office on (02) 6241 8867.

Geoff G Cannock
Chief Executive Officer
Royal National Capital Agricultural Society

Whos responsible?

I have been reading the horsedeals blog now for quite some time, reading many outbursts of anger and frustration directed at the DPI, particularly when it comes to the question of inequality regarding the racing industry.

The real question in all this is who is responsible for what is happening currently, I would argue not most of the DPI staff who are simply following directives from above. I suspect that many of the staff may not agree with some of the decisions, but have no choice. The true responsibility lies with the Ministers (both State and Federal) and very senior staff at the DPI. Decisions of this magnitude simply have to come from these levels.

We are about to enter a general election, we are a couple of weeks into the campaign, and has any one heard any politician from any party even mention the current situation? We need to make it an election issue, Politicians whoever they are need to hear from you, their electorate, that you are not happy!!!. Particularly those with portfolios directly related to this crisis.

While it is easy to vent your spleen at workers from the DPI at ground level (many of whom incidentally are actually your colleagues, recruited by the DPI to assist them), the real villains in this piece reside in the ivory towers, We really must put pressure on them by direct our concerns to them, lets put their jobs on the line and see how they like it.

SB

Maps of the Equine Influenza Protection Plan zones

Open the Interactive Map Viewer
You can now zoom down to the property level to find your zone in our new interactive map viewer.

Please note that this map requires the installation of some components and you may have to come back and click on this link again once the components have been installed.

Note from Horse Deals - We tested this and it worked well, just remember that once you have downloaded the viewer program you need to open or save it to your comuter. Then it all works really well. Just type in your address and you can zoom right into your property.

DPI warns of EI snake oil

The NSW DPI has warned horse owners about natural or herbal medicines being promoted to combat equine influenza (EI).

“Products are being advertised as homeopathic alternatives to EI veterinary vaccine,” NSW deputy chief veterinary officer, Steve Dunn, said today.
“The only products proven to build any immunity against explosively contagious horse flu are those permitted for use by the State chief veterinary officer.

“In NSW we are using the best vaccine internationally available to combat the strain of the virus affecting our horses.

“Our message is buyer beware – these claims are not backed up by scientific evidence and the products are not registered or approved under permit by the national chemical regulator.

“In many cases these products promise the world and deliver nothing.
“Owners need to make their own minds up on homeopathic medicine products, but we urge them to do their homework and investigate product efficacy.”

Mr Dunn said the best way for horse owners to protect their animals’ health was to employ strict biosecurity.

“Horse owners shouldn’t be visiting infected properties or getting visitors from them - this is one way the disease transfers between sites,” he said.

“All horses should be kept away from boundary fences, owners should exercise thorough biosecurity before and after handling horses and should closely monitor the health of their animals.”

'Stay alert' the message from Warwick EI Community Resource Centre

Equine Influenza (EI) is progressively being brought under control, but the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) is reminding people there are still important measures which must be taken to ensure this disease is eradicated.

Ron Glanville, Chief Veterinary Officer of DPI&F, recommended anyone who entered or left a property which had a horse on it should decontaminate whether EI was present or not - this slight inconvenience could prove to be the make or break in the fight to control EI.

"If we don't all pull together and stop EI now - if EI becomes endemic in Australia - horses will need annual vaccinations which have been estimated to cost approximately $300 per horse each year," Dr Glanville said.

"People need to realise this will affect all horse owners - it is a very real potential outcome which can be prevented by decontamination procedures being followed at all horse properties," he said.

Locally, there is a community resource centre operating in Warwick at the Harvey Norman Complex, and this has been specifically setup to assist with EI-related inquiries.

Staff are at the centre from 8am to 6pm seven days and are available to provide fact sheets and general information about EI, financial assistance for affected people, registrations of horses, referrals to registration hotlines and to provide decontamination kits. Contact the centre on 07 4661 7239.
A One Stop Shop, setup by the Department of Communities, is operating at the old Slade School campus in Horsman Road, Warwick.

Staff at that centre are available to help with emergency relief one-off payments and other financial assistance which is available. The centre opens from 10:30am to 3.30pm seven days a week.

Both centres have information and assistance hotline phone numbers for emotional support and counselling.

The community is urged to be vigilant in helping to eradicate EI and anyone who needs any information about managing EI, protecting their horses from the virus or who requires support, should contact the local Warwick community centre.

Friday 26 October: There are currently 1715 infected properties (IP's) in Queensland, this is an increase of 75 from 25 October . DPI&F have introduced an inner buffer zone as part of the strategic plan to further contain this disease to South East Queensland. Vaccination, as part of DPI&F program of containment and eradication is continuing.

Further measures to ease the equine influenza burden

National Management Group, Friday, 26 October 2007

The National Management Group (NMG) overseeing the response to equine influenza has reaffirmed that the focus of the response continues to be control of the disease with a view to eradication. It also reaffirmed the importance it attaches to minimising the social and economic impact of the disease on horse owners through a number of new measures.

At its most recent meeting, NMG also welcomed further news of positive developments in the disease response including moves to resume racing at Randwick, the return to work of police horses in Sydney, and the finalisation of a protocol to allow the inter-State movement of horses from infected to non-infected States.

Mindful of the high costs of the equine influenza response on horse owners, NMG has moved to ease the burden by broadening the use of vaccination to more aggressively contain and eradicate the disease and free up movement controls in certain zones.

Further strategic vaccination of horses will be undertaken with up to 240,000 horses expected to be vaccinated by early 2008. An allocation and distribution schedule is being developed based on business cases and ongoing provision and refinement of data from industry.

Guidelines have been released for this purpose and national horse sectors have been invited to lodge business cases for vaccine allocations.

Proposals will need to be consistent with nationally agreed objectives for vaccination and include targeted surveillance, identification, tracing, auditing and on-going biosecurity arrangements.

• Business cases will need to include evidence about:
• The vaccine’s proposed use within an identifiable sector of horses
• Details there is an accountable organisation responsible for all aspects of vaccine holding and use that can audit, identify and track all vaccinated horses
• The accountable organisation’s rules, authority and capability to control the activity of horses and people, the application of penalties and sanctions, and the system to trace horses and people moving to and from events or training locations, and
• The biosecurity measures to be applied on the movement of horses and people within each location to prevent the potential exposure of other horses to the virus.

NMG stressed it was keeping a constant check on both the direct and indirect costs of containment and eradication efforts and identified that future priorities to assist the industry included:

• progressively moving restriction zones from “red” to “purple” to allow the greater movement of horses
• authorisation for horse gatherings
• the vaccination of high risk horses within infected jurisdictions and strategic vaccination in non infected jurisdictions
• development of protocols and timelines with industry to restore normal business, and
• maintaining layered barriers to control disease spread using zones and state barriers.

While the priority for vaccination remains existing buffer zones around high concentrations of the disease in NSW and Queensland, NMG also moved to create a small national contingency supply of vaccine to support buffers that might be required for disease control purposes should the need arise in the future.

NMG is comprised of the Chief Executive Officers of the Commonwealth and State/Territory departments of agriculture/primary industries across Australia and also the heads of the peak bodies representing the horse industry. It is chaired by the Secretary of the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Dr Conall O’Connell.

(Note: As far as vaccination priorities for EFA competition horses are concerned, the first group to be considered will be horses with current performance cards. Depending on the quantities of vaccine made available, this may need to be broken down further to progressive ranking from the top level of competition downward.)

Vaccination update Friday 26th October

Derek Major and a team of vets have now delivered some 2000 doses of Canary Pox Vaccine to horses in the Purple and Red Zones.

There still seems to be some misunderstanding about the present arrangements. This is because when the vaccine first became available the DPI required that it be given in the buffer zones as a first priority in order to control the spread of the EI virus. Whilst this was obviously a sensible plan, it did mean that there was concern about the number of doses available and the ‘unknown’ number of horses who would need vaccinating in those zones.

The DPI’s next priority was to vaccinate all those horses in the Purple and Red Zones who were disease free. Again it was not possible to know how many horses remained disease free in the zones. Again vaccine was in limited supply.

This meant that the EFA was asked to decide which horses in the Purple and Red Zones were to be vaccinated first. We nominated our performance card horses as of course we wanted to ensure that these horse could get back to competition. Of course when the vets went to the EFA listed horses they would find other horses who had not had EI on the same property and it was agreed with DPI that all horses on each property should be vaccinated as this served everyone’s interests.

Very significant misinformation inevitably circulates in these situations and it is important that our members and the wider Performance and Pleasure Horse community understands that the EFA, both State and National has tried under all circumstances to look after the whole horse community as well as its own members.

The Canary Pox Vaccine is being used because it has the significant advantage of enabling testing which shows whether the horse has had EI or the vaccine. This is important because if Australia is ever to be declared EI, this information needs to be available.

The argument as to whether this is reality or not, given the extent of the infection, is something which we can only speculate about at this point.

The Federal Government have now approved the importation of 750,000 of the Canary Pox Vaccine. In NSW we have 18,000 horses registered as Performance Horses but of course for every horse registered there are a large number of other horses which take part in competition but may not yet be registered. All horses, not infected, will need to be either blood tested or vaccinated if they are to take part in competitions in the near future.

For the other horse organisations the numbers are also very considerable. The horse industry, across the board, needs to get back to normal as soon as possible and it seems that this vaccine will enable us to lessen the impact of the disease and get a ‘disease free’ proportion of our horses back on track.

At this stage every effort is being made to get the vaccine to as many horses as possible. DPI has a vaccination program that is closely linked with that of the equine vets in NSW. Again it is worth emphasising that the equine vets and DPI vets are vaccinating as many uninfected horses in the Red and Purple Zone as they can irrespective of whether those horses are EFA registered or not! This is a combined effort to enable the Purple Zone and the Red Zone to get back to normal.

Horses in the Amber zone can also be vaccinated but it should be understood that it may mean a longer wait for the vaccine in that zone because of the availability of ‘vet power’ and vaccine. This vaccination in the Amber Zones will be ‘user pays’. The DPI has stated that this vaccine, when available, should only be made applicable to competition horses that are likely to compete in the purple and red zones.

When the vaccine is given, all horses will be microchipped. This will enable a significant data base to be constructed. Our lack of records have been a difficult problem in the management of the disease because we have not been able to give a true indication of the numbers of Performance and Pleasure horses that make up such a significant part of our industry.

EFA NSW has available on the website an Interim EI Record document. This can be downloaded by anyone who needs it in any section of the horse industry. It is clear that in the short term event organisers will need to sight a record of every horses’ EI status in order that competitions can go ahead. In the long run if we regain our EI free status in Australia this may no longer be necessary but it is essential at this stage.

Other societies are very welcome to use the EFA Form or make appropriate adaptations according to their needs.

EI Interim Document - download

User Instructions - Interim EI Record

For vaccinated horses, this is to be filled out when your horse is vaccinated, for most people in the purple and red zones this will be when the vet administers the second vaccination.

The entire Performance and Pleasure horse industry may use this form to record their horses EI status.

Please print off two forms for each horse.

Retain the original for your own records and send a copy to the horse society of your choice - EFA NSW members should send their copy to the EFA NSW.

EFA NSW will keep the copy and allocate you with an EI document number and corresponding bridle number for EFA registered horses. This is because we anticipate that early competitions will require each horse to have an identified EI status. For unregistered horses who wish to compete in EFA events, the event will be allocated a batch of EI document numbers that can be added to your record at the event and then this number will be lodged with the EFA office.

Please understand that this situation may not remain the same. If EI is found to be endemic or if a National Vaccination Program goes ahead the paper work will change.

There will be no charge for this service at this stage.

This is an INTERIM MEASURE ONLY designed to aid a speedy return to competition opportunities.

For those who have infected properties/horses and have notified the DPI it is important that you obtain some sort of proof that they have identified your property or horse as being EI infected or quarantined. You should obtain from them an ANEMIS number if possible for inclusion on the EI record document. This will help us to determine if your horse has natural immunity, although please note, it still may not be sufficient if blood tests were not taken at the time of quarantine and a further blood test may be required.

Click here for a downloadable copy of EI document – you MUST download and fill in two forms for each horse. Retain one and send the other to your society, i.e. EFA NSW

Vaccination will be compulsory

MELBOURNE - The Australian Racing Board (ARB) has today given in principle approval to the adoption of new Australian Rules of Racing making it mandatory for all horses involved in racing and breeding to be vaccinated as a condition of participation in the industry.

In terms of a rationale the Australian thoroughbred sector (racing and breeding) believes that implementing a permanent national vaccination policy is an essential and non-negotiable risk management policy. In this regard it may be noted that:

The UK has vaccinated since 1981 and despite EI being considered endemic in that country no race meetings have been lost because of EI in 25 years (including the 2003 Newmarket outbreak).

Notwithstanding that Japan has been considered free of EI from 1972 to 2007 it has a compulsory vaccination program and this has undoubtedly been a significant factor mitigating the losses caused by the 2007 outbreak.
ABARE has included in its modelling the probability of an EI outbreak in Australia once every 20 years irrespective of eradication.

“We are still giving our full co-operation to the efforts that are being made to contain and eradicate EI, and we very much hope that the disease can indeed be eradicated.

Read more.

Interesting?

I was very happy (no actually I was beside myself) to have my horse (in a purple zone) receive his 1st vaccination today. When I enquired about the 2 week booster shot I was told, by the vet, that they (I assume the DPI) have now learned that a horse has more immunity if the booster is given 1 month after the 1st injection and then they don't require the 6 month injection. Does anyone else smell a rat.

Judy