An Omen 3 Days prior to EI Outbreak in Australia?

Equine influenza explained

By Scott Heinrich
FOXSPORTS.com.au
August 22, 2007

WITH the Japanese racing industry crippled by an outbreak of equine influenza, there is concern that horses from the country, including last year's winner Delta Blues, could miss the Melbourne Cup.

Unless the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service is satisfied that the Japanese horses have not been infected, they will not be allowed into Australia.
But what is equine flu, and why are authorities so determined to keep it out of Australia? FOXSPORTS.com.au contacted Dr Leanne Begg, a specialist in equine medicine at the Randwick Equine Centre, to find out more about the virus.
What is equine influenza?
"It’s a respiratory disease that is highly contagious and spreads rapidly. Because we don’t have it in this country, none of our horse population – particularly our racing horse population – is vaccinated against it. So if it did enter the country it would spread rapidly and have a high morbidity, which means lots of horses would get infected. They won’t all necessarily die, but some can progress to pneumonia and other complications. Some horses could get quite sick. The majority would just get a fever and cough, but then their performance may be affected for several months afterwards. It would pretty much stop racing in Australia."
What are the symptoms and how is the virus transmitted?
"High temperature, coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge. It’s a respiratory disease, so coughing, snorting over other horses (will transmit the virus) and people can be carriers for it as well. It doesn’t live in the environment for a very long time so it’s most commonly horse to horse, but if a horse coughed or sneezed on your hands and you went and handled another horse, certainly a person could be a carrier. Most likely it would just spread through a stable with horses coughing. It’s got a really short incubation period, only one to three days. The signs appear quite quickly and it’s got a rapid ability to spread from horse to horse."
What can be done to ward against it?
"They do vaccinate. Most horses in Japan are vaccinated, so in a vaccinated population it’s not that big a deal. There will be small outbreaks but it’s not going to spread. The problem with us is the majority of the general racing population wouldn’t be vaccinated, so if it did enter the population, it would spread quite quickly."
Which countries are not affected by equine flu, and how has Australia remained immune?
"We’re pretty privileged that we don’t have it here. I found a reference to substantiate that ‘Australia and New Zealand are currently the only large equine populations yet to be exposed to equine influenza’. We are pretty unique.
In the old days, when horses had to come by boat, they would either be over it or would be dead before they got to Australia. It’s because we are so isolated, but the problem these days with air transport is that within 48 hours a horse can go from England or America or Japan to Australia. There is pre-export quarantine and then there is post-export quarantine in this country for two weeks. That has also helped keep it out, because if a horse is going to get sick it should get sick quite quickly. (Equine flu) is not one of these diseases that hangs around in the body for months and months and then suddenly appears. If it’s there you’ll see it. But with the increased number of horses travelling around, I guess it increases the possibility that it could be spread to Australia."
What would happen if equine flu was detected in Australia?
"It’s a bit like foot-and-mouth in England. There would be quarantine. Horses wouldn’t be allowed to move. It would basically shut down racing. What they would try to do is isolate an area, and if it was in the country they would vaccinate to try to stop it spreading. All horses would potentially be vulnerable to it. From then on we’d have to vaccinate our horses every year for it, which is something we don’t have to worry about right now. We’ve got lots of stallions coming into the country around this time of year, so there would be potentially a huge monetary effect on the Australian racing and breeding industry."
How does the flu compare with other equine diseases?
"We do have herpes viruses in this country that cause similar respiratory problems, but we don’t tend to see as many secondary issues with this as we do with influenza. Quite a few horses get pneumonia, heart problems and a few other complications from that disease that you don’t see in other respiratory viruses. A small percentage of horses with equine flu could die from it. But the biggest thing is it would spread, and horses who have had the disease are going to have their performance affected. They wouldn’t die, but they would lose days in training and a small number would develop other complications from it."