More relaxed EI restrictions for WA

The Department of Agriculture says it will further relax its regulations governing horse movements into Western Australia from next month.
An outbreak of equine influenza (EI) in Sydney last year halted the movement of horses nationwide.
Final testing in New South Wales and Queensland is due to be completed by the end of March to determine if the flu is still present.
The department's animal biosecurity director, Ashley Mercy, says from March 10, horses from non-infected states will be able to come into WA without being held in a six-day isolation period.
"The same will apply for horses coming from ... New South Wales and Queensland, what they call the white zones, and these are the zones where they've never had equine influenza, so it's virtually back to normal," he said.

IMPORTANT TO ALL HORSE OWNERS - Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2008

This Horse Disease response Levy Bill will effect all registered horse owners.

Click her to download the Bill Should you wish to voice any concerns you may have, email the Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke
Tony.Burke.MP@aph.gov.au

or post to Tony Burke MP,
Electorate Office, Ground Floor
1-5 Commercial Rd, KINGSGROVE NSW 2208
PO Box 324, KINGSGROVE NSW 1480
Phone: (02) 9554 3808, Fax: (02) 9554 3504

Parliament House Office
PO Box 6022, Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Phone: (02) 6277 4548, Fax: (02) 6277 8417

OR Prime Minister
The Hon Kevin Rudd MP
Parliament House, CANBERRA ACT 2600

CLICK HERE TO SEND AN EMAIL TO THE PRIME MINISTER

Feel free to email a copy of your correspondence to blogEI@horsedeals.com.au to be included on the Horse Deals Blog.

Horse Flu 25 February 2008

***Transcript from Allan Jones**

One of the weaknesses of the Rudd Government is there doesn't seem to be anyone who's got any experience of life west of the Great Dividing Range.
There's an inquiry being conducted into the equine influenza crisis, which I might add was brilliantly handled in New South Wales by a Minister hardly anyone's heard of, Ian Macdonald.
He and his staff were outstanding.
But the inquiry by Mr Justice Callinan is establishing and will establish one thing.
Equine flu came here via Federal Government's quarantine incompetence.
Now the inquiry will embellish that a bit, but that's how we got EI.
Incompetence by a government statutory authority.
Yet the new Agriculture Minister, Tony Burke, an able young bloke from Western Sydney is now saying that the horse industry will have to help pay the cost of eradication.
Now of course you know I have an interest, but in this world you pay up if you're responsible.
Tony Burke's introduced new laws to impose a levy on the horse industry.
The horse industry has nothing to do with the spread of equine influenza.
The Federal Government's quarantine provisions failed and failed abysmally, under the previous Government.
And Tony Burke, you wanted Government, you've got it, and you've inherited the rubbish as well as the riches.
But don't start telling the horse industry they have to pay up.
This is monstrous.
The inquiry has already heard about the failure of quarantine at Sydney Airport and the Eastern Creek Quarantine Station.
The AQIS, Australian Quarantine Inspection Service, failed.
And already that has been documented at the inquiry.
One truck driver carried stallions from the airport to Eastern Creek.
The truck had never been disinfected and the truck driver says he'd never received written instructions from anyone on the disinfection of his vehicle.
The equine influenza outbreak will prove the failure of a Government instrumentality.
The failure on biosecurity issues.
The failure to adhere to quarantine protocols.
The failure to carry out responsibilities.
And now a wet behind the ears Tony Burke is saying that the horse industry will have to pay.

Expert Says Japan Likely Source Of EI Crisis

In Australia, Japan "has been highlighted as the source of the equine influenza virus which caused losses running into hundreds of millions of dollars to the racing industry," reported anzbloodstocknews.com. The "finger had been pointed at horses from Ireland as the initial source of the disease entering Australia via the Eastern Creek animal quarantine centre", but at the Callinan Inquiry Dr James Watson (veterinary investigation leader at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory) "confirmed Japan as the likely source of the virus entering Australia". Watson summed up: "Putting all the facts together . . . . it points to some form of common exposure of the horses, which favours the origin somewhere in Japan or transit there from." Dr Watson was speaking "ahead of a report that is expected to be tabled at the inquiry later today by Dr Richard Newton from Britain's Animal Health Trust; Newton "is the world's leading expert on equine influenza" & his report "is also expected to point to Japan as the source of the influenza".

ARB adamant on EI stance

LAUNCESTON - The Australian Racing Board (ARB) will vigorously continue representations to the federal government opposing any attempt to impose the costs of the equine influenza outbreak on horse owners.
It is estimated that those costs will be in excess of $100million.
"We believe that it would be fundamentally inappropriate and inequitable for the horse industry to bear the costs of mounting a response to a disease outbreak in circumstances where it had been established that the Commonwealth did not maintain an adequate set of measures to protect the horse population from that outbreak occurring," ARB chairman Bob Pearson said.
"The findings that are ultimately made by the current inquiry being conducted by Ian Callinan are likely to provide a factual basis upon which to make such an assessment in this case."
The ARB, which met in Launceston on Tuesday, said it was also keen to correct the misunderstanding that the government was proposing to recover the costs of the CHAPS scheme of financial assistance.
"The CHAPS scheme established by the former government and continued by the Rudd government does not involve any proposal to recover these monies from the industry. We once again we thank the minister, the Hon Tony Bourke, for the extension of this scheme," Pearson said.

Beer bounty for cane toads

TOM Hedley, Australia's biggest private hotel owner and one of Queensland's richest men, has thrown his support behind plans to introduce a beer-for-a-bag-of-toads bounty. KEN Ritchie never thought he'd see the day a cane toad would be worth its weight in beer, let alone two.
"Hell, I'll give them two beers," said Mr Hedley, who also owns and drinks at his favourite watering hole the Red Beret.
Latest estimates are that there are between 100 and 200 million cane toads in Australia, which means at the standard Queensland "pot" glass size of 285mls, it would take 57 million litres of free beer to wipe out pest - at two toads a bag. But Mr Hedley thinks it will be money well spent.
"As far as I am concerned they're pests and a nuisance to society," said Mr Hedley.
"If offering a beer for a bag of toads is one way to wipe them out once and for all then I am all for it," he said.
The RSPCA welcomed the multi-millionaire's backing, saying the proposal could be modelled on a similar beer-for-a-toad bounty run in the Northern Territory.
"How it worked in Darwin is they brought in the toads to the RSPCA to be humanely euthanised and they were then issued a voucher to get a beer – with a daily limit on the number of beers," said RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty.
"It could be more than a gimmick. It could seriously help reduce the toad population, especially around suburbia," he said.

Show crowds up but income down

This year's Canberra Show attracted more people through the gates than last year despite the absence of horse events because of equine flu.
Organisers say the overall attendance of more than 100,000 people was down by about 20,000, mostly due to horse owners staying away.

But they recorded about a six per cent increase in paying customers.
Chief Executive of the Agricultural Society, Geoff Cannock, said the full cost of the show was unlikely to be recovered.
"We refunded 173-thousand dollars in horse entry fees," he said.
"We didn't receive 70-thousand dollars in stabling fees and we didn't receive around 50-thousand dollars in camping fees.
"It was always unlikely that we could recover our full cost and fortunately the ACT Government helped us out with extra publicity and extra entertainment because otherwise we would have had a big downturn in our gates, so we've eliminated the first hurdle."

Qld ends horse flu 'red zones'

Queensland has moved a step closer to becoming free of horse flu with the end of the "red zone" from Wednesday.

Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin said that with no confirmed equine influenza properties in Queensland, from Wednesday the amber zone would become white and the red zone would become amber.
"While there will remain some restrictions, we are continuing full steam ahead towards being declared EI free," Mr Mulherin said in a statement.
The red zone's reclassification as amber means that horses can move freely on hoof and can be transported with just a waybill within the amber zone.
However, a permit and waybill will be necessary for horses to move outside the zone or interstate, and specific isolation and testing requirements may apply depending on individual horse status.
The amber zone's move to white will see it joined with the rest of the state.
Within the white zone horses can move freely on hoof and can be transported with only a waybill.
It will also be easier to move horses from this area into white zones in other states, but waybills and travel documentation are still required.
Queensland's chief vet Dr Ron Glanville said the zone changes were a move further towards the goal of being EI free by June 30.
"There have been no new cases of infection confirmed since Christmas Day, and there are now no EI infected properties in Queensland," he said.
"However, people need to remain vigilant and take the necessary precautions."
Precise details of the zones are available from the Department of Primary Industries.

Owners won't foot EI bill

THE Australian Racing Board is seeking a meeting with the Primary Industries Ministerial Council to ensure all thoroughbreds are included in the national equine influenza vaccination program.

Directors of the ARB met in Launceston yesterday and declared their opposition to any attempts by the Federal Government to make racehorse owners bear the costs of the program implemented to eradicate the disease. The ARB estimates those costs will be in excess of $100 million.
"We believe that it would be fundamentally inappropriate and inequitable for the horse industry to bear the costs of mounting a response to a disease outbreak in circumstances where it had been established that the Commonwealth did not maintain an adequate set of measures to protect the horse population from that outbreak occurring," ARB chairman Bob Pearson said.
The ARB also allayed concerns that the Federal Government was proposing to recover the costs of the financial assistance package known as CHAPS.

Qld horse flu restrictions set to ease further

The Queensland Government says the state's horse flu-affected properties will be out of the "red" tomorrow.
The disease was first detected six months ago, bringing the equine industry to a standstill.

But from tomorrow, the last remaining "red zone" will become "amber", meaning horses can move more freely.
Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin has told Parliament the former Federal Government dropped the ball on quarantine and Queensland paid the price.
"It wasn't the Queensland Government that was responsible for EI [equine influenza] entering the country," he said.
"It wasn't the NSW Government, but none the less, here we are on the brink of returning to reality, but not before spending tens of millions of dollars spearheading the fight against the threat that was not of our own making."