EI eradicated too late for Mudgee Show

In spite of an early clearance for equine flu in NSW, the call has come too late for the Mudgee Show.
Local horseman, Arnold Benson said it is too late to start training a horse to go into the Mudgee Show and there are too many problems still associated with EI for the show to take on horses.
Mr Benson said apart from Blayney Show, there will be no show horse events at regional shows until the Orange Show, which will be after the Royal Easter Show in Sydney - none for Rylstone, Gulgong, or Binnaway shows, and Dunedoo had no horses at their recent show.
Mr Benson said the Sydney Royal Easter Show is having 1200 horses, but they have a strict protocol of every horse being vaccinated and micro chipped, which costs around $200 per animal.
He said the paperwork alone to check clearance protocols would be enormous.
Mr Benson said the government should have vaccinated all horses when they had the chance, but some were vaccinated and not others.
He said although the 13 horses stabled at Mudgee Showground were tested, the blood tests came back clear and the horses were not vaccinated.
“In my book they should have all been vaccinated,” he said.
Mr Benson said the cost of EI to the horse industry is the fault of the government for its lack of surveillance and protocols at the quarantine station in Sydney.
“They let it come in,” he said.
Although there is an inquiry into the issue, Mr Benson said he is not confident anything will come of it.
In the meantime, Mr Benson is considering whether he will be too old to train up his horses for next year’s shows and if vaccination is still required, whether the cost will be too much for a country show.