Victorian Agricultural Shows Ltd Letter to members - 18th Jan

Dear Members

Dr Hugh Millar Chief Veterinary Officer of the Department of Primary Industries Victoria and his staff provided a briefing on the equine influenza situation on Tuesday 15 January 2008.
The information that was provided demonstrated that the last known outbreak of equine influenza occurred in Queensland on 22 December 2007 and that EI is on the wane. Dr Millar said that his department is working towards allowing the relatively free movement of horses into Victoria from the green zones in NSW and QLD starting from early February. All such movements would require permits but these would be processed expediently without the requirement for veterinary checks or periods of quarantine.
Dr Millar said that the risk of EI spreading to Victoria is now assessed as negligible. He went on to say that he could see no reason why our equine activities could not return to normal but earnestly requested that we do not abandon all bio-security measures, particularly traceability. There is no longer a need to separate the public from horses, however tracing records still needs to be kept of where horse/s come from and where they go after any event.
Dr Millar thanked everyone present at the meeting and through them their organisations for the outstanding co-operation throughout the EI crisis. He said that the lockdown immediately after the first outbreak was discovered, the containment measures taken in QLD and NSW, the onset of warm humid weather and the voluntary action taken in Victoria combined to allow authorities to deal with the problem quickly and effectively.
Equine organisations can now consider holding horse events in the light of the following :
~ Bio-security measures as outlined on the DPI website are still good practice
~ Traceability means a written record must be kept (provided by the entrant) of every horse attending, where the animal/s has come (address of the properly) from and where it will return at the conclusion of the event;
~ A copy of the interstate movement permit must be sighted if the horse has come to the event from interstate;
~ The event must be registered with DPI; and
~ Venue managers have given permission for the event to be held.

Contingency plans should not be completely abandoned as an outbreak of EI or some other disease may occur at any time and therefore a risk will remain. The risk of EI being detected outside of restricted areas is very low. Despite this the permit system for movements into Victoria from NSW and the bio security measures referred to above are a responsible part of managing this very low risk.
Thank you for your patience and co-operation over the past four months during this EI period.
Yours Sincerely
Bob Johnson
Chairman

VICTORIAN AGRICULTURAL SHOWS LTD