Quarantine managers to blame' for horse flu

The senior lawyer assisting Justice Ian Callinan's equine influenza inquiry says federal quarantine managers should be held responsible for the escape of the virus into the eastern Australian horse population.

At the height of restrictions to control the horse flu outbreak the equine industry's income was down by $4.5 million a day.

Counsel assisting the inquiry says the evidence suggests the virus got out from Sydney's Eastern Creek Quarantine station.

But the inquiry cannot identify the person, or the first horse, which spread the flu.

However Tony Meagher SC argues the quarantine facility was under-staffed, under-funded, and poorly managed.

He says the virus would not have escaped if the head of the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries and executives in the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service had ensured the "most basic" biosecurity measures were in place.

The Federal Government has postponed debate on a bill to levy the horse industry for the cost of containing disease outbreaks until it receives the Callinan inquiry report.