2007HORSE FLU – THE BIGGEST RISK IS THINKING IT’S OVER

FROM THE MINISTER FOR AGRICULTUREDATE: Friday, December 21 2007

The Brumby Government launched the second phase of its Equine Influenza (EI) advertising campaign today to keep Victoria EI-free.
The Minister for Agriculture, Joe Helper, said since the end of the Spring Racing Carnival, many Victorians think that horse flu is no longer a threat – but this certainly is not the case.
“The biggest risk is thinking the risk is over,” Mr Helper said.
“We are ramping up our EI campaign at a crucial time when the risk of an outbreak is heightened by increased movement across borders during the busy holiday period.”
Key elements of the public information campaign include regional TV and radio advertising, a targeted media campaign focussing on major horse activity areas, billboards urging people ‘Not to cross the line’ and letters to 18,000 horse owners.
Mr Helper said the second phase of the advertising campaign will strengthen the October-November campaign stressing ‘Take horse flu seriously before it takes its toll’.
He said the second phase of the campaign urges the public to remain vigilant and to closely follow biosecurity measures to prevent an outbreak.
“New advertisements will appear in newspapers and on radio, television and outdoor billboards
to explain the vital role the public continues to play in keeping Victoria EI-free,” Mr Helper said.
“It is important that we continue to maintain full hygiene procedures to protect our horses and our livelihoods.
“Complacency is now our greatest threat and we plan to intensify this message for any individual who owns a horse or comes into contact with horses.
“To keep Victoria EI-free and to avoid lockdowns, long-term disruption to equestrian events and costly on-going vaccination and hygiene protocols, we still need your help.
“New protocols are being developed to relax horse movements across the NSW/Victorian borders in early 2008, but the horse industry can only make a full recovery if people remain vigilant in their efforts to keep Victoria EI-free.”

Vaccine blamed in horse death

Another horse owner has spoken up, following reports in the Mercury last week of a horse dying after being given equine influenza vaccine.Wilton's Christine McCarthy said her healthy horse, Bob, died of colic on November 22 - three weeks after vaccination."He had never had colic in his life, he was 22 and we had him for 12 years; he just came down with it straight away," she said.Ms McCarthy had felt "pestered" by the Department of Primary Industries, who she said called continuously to encourage her to vaccinate her three horses. "I felt under an obligation to do it because I have neighbours who have trotters and they were vaccinated."But she had a bad feeling.Ms McCarthy believes the vaccination caused Bob's death, "even though I can't prove it". Department spokesman Brett Fifield said because there was no autopsy they could not comment. "Horses died of colic a long time before equine influenza was in Australia," he said.Last week the department cancelled plans to vaccinate at the Wombarra property of Susanne and John Watson, who claimed it caused the death of 12-year-old pony Will.

Are the QPPHI representing YOU??

If you like many that got excited when the QPPHI Crisis Committee formed thinking that you were finally being represented, you might need to do some investigating and find out the facts! Alarmed at some of the things I have been hearing, people trying to contact the group leader and being told don't ask questions, I decided to send Mr Toft an email. I didn't even get a response so the others were one up on me at least they were acknowledged as not important! I realise this group was formed in a crisis, and have on several occasions congratulated them for their initiative, there is no doubt they have put in a lot of work... but for who? and are they being duped by the DPI or are they duping you?At the end of October they came out guns a blazing, hit the media with 'vaccine for all p&p horses in the red zone'. Directing people to the DPI website for application forms, which were to be sent to your private vets, NOT to the DPI, to my understanding without any prior consultation with the private vets. This created substantial paperwork for vets to collate, transfer the information and submit orders to the DPI. The vets form clearly stated that applicants had to be within the inner buffer of the red zone, yet the QPPHI were telling all those who wanted vaccination in the red zone to apply. I even clarified this with one of the committee members and was told to tell my vet, the vet form was wrong "teething problems" and that EVERYONE in the red zone was eligible! Well done QPPHI / DPI, this was a great way to offside the vets, bog them down with paperwork and jam their phone lines with desperate people wanting to find out if and when they were approved! Two months on and all enquiries I have made around the place, not one application outside the inner buffer has been approved, and every subsequent 'update' from the group sounds more and more like the DPI propaganda! Wake up Qld, the vaccine that was touted as being for the P&P industry is being used to fight the disease down in the disaster zone. Quite rightly, but the fact is the Govt should have been doing THOSE horses as suppression vaccination, they should be protecting all horses the same as NSW did in the Purple and Red Zones. But no... up here they make it sound like we had equal rights, and even managed to palm off the vet costs onto the owners! People are still being rejected for vaccine because the disease is too close to them, they have been waiting for it to arrive for 2 months.
Janine Eades applied for vaccination when the disease was 60klms from her, never got vaccinated and a month later her horses became infected, read her story here http://horsedealsflu.blogspot.com/search?q=Janine+Eades 5 survived and 1 died!!

I started asking around and discovered that many people are dissatisfied with what's going on (or not) and that Rob Setter the DPI Deputy Director General agreed to facilitate a meeting at the DPI office in Ann Street last Friday. Many industry reps from different groups attended, as well as QHC and DPI ILO's. From what I can gather the Deputy Director stated that the QPPHI is NOT a representative of the pleasure and performance industry as a whole, but an industry rep (one of many) and a contact point between industry and Govt. They are a crisis committee only and have no statutory rights to make decisions on behalf of the industry as a whole! I believe there is a forum being held in March, conducted by the DPI, and so far the only group that has the right to speak on the floor on behalf of the pleasure and performance industry are the QPPHI. Scary stuff, given the fact that the instigator of the group doesn't care to have contact with people in the industry that they claim to represent! The QHC, (baby brother to AHIC who have been at the table since day one and done very little to fight for equality in this disaster and who also represent the TB Industry), are now holding a seminar in February and looking for 2 delegates from all clubs, societies, associations etc in the horse industry to attend the seminar so that the QHC has a united voice with which to go the DPI forum in March.So, there you have it, 4 months on and approximately 90-100,000 horses that have been infected (across the two states), and the pleasure and performance industry still have NO UNITED VOICE, nobody is looking after the welfare of our horses, they have tied our hands and prevented us from protecting our horses, yet put us at greater risk now than we were 4 months ago.... More meetings and forums scheduled for 2-3 months time.... more horses to suffer!Time you all found out who is representing you and if they are truly representing you, sounds to me like someone's already thrown the toys out of the cot and all is not as it seems to those on the outside! One thing is for certain, nobody is going to be doing ANYTHING with their horses for at least another 6 months WITHOUT VACCINE or natural immunity from infection. If its good enough for the TB's to have protection (vaccine), their business back up and running and still claim to support the eradication plan then it is good enough for everyone!!Do not under estimate the power of your local members, you may or may not have voted them in, but you certainly pay their wages if you pay taxes... The recent shake up in the DPI was as a result of David Gibson the local member for Gympie who took up the issue with Mike Horan, specifically the permits department which was in a complete disgrace.

Sit back and wait, or get up and do something!

Cindy M ,SE Qld

Response to Coolmore........

how wonderful for you. Such a shame the same cant be said for any one who didnt realise you shouldnt own any but a thoroughbred in this country though.racing and breeding righ back on track.not even the world renowned Tom Quilty will run in 2008 though. but then if it were restricted to the only recognised breed in this country it too would be still up and running wouldn't it?
Sandy

Coolmore stands firm in the face of disaster

Coolmore Stud has emerged from the equine influenza crisis with staggering broodmare figures, according to Australian manager Michael Kirwan, who revealed this week its reduced band of stallions had covered more than 1700 mares.
"If anyone had asked me back in mid-September whether we would get anywhere near that number of mares to Coolmore I would have laughed at them," Kirwan said. "We, along with all the Hunter Valley studs, were looking at a disaster."
After racing was halted following the equine flu outbreak in Sydney,
the 2007 breeding season faced being a non-event with more than 30 world-class shuttle stallions owned by the Coolmore and Darley conglomerates stuck at Eastern Creek.
"There's no doubt that [thanks to] the help from the DPI [Department of Primary Industries], Aushorse, [Racing NSW boss] Peter V'Landys and so many others we were able to get the breeding industry on track, with the stallions leaving Eastern Creek on Monday, September 24, and commencing covering the following day," Kirwan said.
"Coolmore was pretty fortunate in as much as we had Johannesburg, Lion Heart, Dehere, Royal Academy and Tale Of The Cat, which had flown in from America, released from Eastern Creek before the outbreak was discovered.
"With Fastnet Rock [also in action], Coolmore was able to serve around 540 mares with these stallions but three returned to the US - Johannesburg, Tale Of The Cat and Lion Heart - in the first week of October. Fastnet Rock's popularity was totally unbelievable.
All up, Coolmore had bookings for 2400 mares for 2007, but our numbers were cut drastically with mares from Victoria and Queensland unable to cross the designated zones set down by the DPI."
Kirwan said last year Coolmore's stallions served almost 2200 mares, and the effort this year to get within 500 of that was quite remarkable.
Encosta De Lago, Coolmore's stallion leader, again proved to be a phenomenon. He had bookings for more than 230 mares and was able to serve more than 175.
Fastnet Rock never left Coolmore, and breeders who had their mares at the stud were quick to use the well-performed son of Danehill to ensure they would have a yearling to sell in 2010.
"Fastnet Rock covered in excess of 220 mares and his figures, which will be released by the Australian Stud Book, could see him become the most popular ever stallion in a single Australian season," Kirwan added.
"Fusaichi Pegasus's book received a boost also by commencing his stud duties on time and served close to 200 mares; Rock Of Gibraltar had more than 175 bookings; Stravinsky, who was a late addition to our Denman team when he was unable to travel to Cambridge Stud in NZ, had more than 100 mares, which was quite brilliant considering the late announcement that he would stand in NSW. And new boy Holy Roman Emperor was tremendous with 130 mares in his first Australian season.