Central Zone of Pony Clubs Inc. 10/20/2007

‘EI and Pony Club - Short Term pain for Long Term Gain’

Leonie Lang, Zone Rep, invited Mark Burnell, President of the Victorian Horse Council and Industry Liaison Officer with the DPI, to come along and talk to zone delegates at the zone meeting on October 2nd.

Mark began by explaining that the outbreak of EI in New South Wales was something the industry had long feared would happen. ‘The horse industry has been preparing for this day for many years. To date, we’ve been living in Utopia here in Australia - we’ve never had to conform to compulsory registration of horses. But if this disease isn’t eradicated, that’s exactly what we face in the future.’

He talked about what it’s like in countries that have had outbreaks of equine influenza and now have to live with periodic outbreaks of this disease. For example, in Ireland kids who attend pony club rallies have to show their horse passport and that their horse vaccinations are up to date - before they can even get their horse off the float!

‘Although some horses have already died from EI here in Australia, this isn’t a particularly nasty version of EI’, he said. ‘It can get a lot worse.’ The famous eventer, turned racing trainer, Mark Todd, has a foreman who was in Spain when EI broke out. ‘The story goes that when Madrid Zoo got 6 zebras from South Africa, they also got EI. It spread to the nearby racetrack, which had 700 horses. The effects were disastrous. Many horses got sick, died and people lost their jobs. For the next 4 years not one horse left Spain, or came in. Breeding was at a standstill; there were no rallies, no horses in the bullrings, nothing.

‘EI’s a virus, which means that it will mutate and change. It’s like following a football team and every season you have to change your jumper. You will still follow football, but it’s just with a different team. The virus is like that. Just when you think you are on top of it, the virus mutates and the vaccine they developed last time, isn’t as effective this time around.

He explained the kind of restrictions that people in the racing industry have had to comply with – movement permits, stringent biosecurity guidelines. ‘Trainers are licensed and if they are found to be in breach of current rules, they risk being disqualified from working both here and overseas. The industry has gone to great lengths to keep racing going – and to keep 75,000 people in a job. Even so, the industry is losing half a million AUS$ a week.’

Since Day 1, every outbreak of EI has been caused by people either moving horses illegally or acting stupidly or via a person, such as a track rider, a farrier or a vet. Mark has many colleagues working in the worst affected areas in NSW. ‘Since the outbreak in September many have not had one day’s work. Many have young families and no other means of support. They are doing it very hard.

‘I’d like to congratulate the PCAV for agreeing to the standstill. Your CEO, James Fitzpatrick argued hard and long to keep the standstill going for another month – even although it would have caused a lot of disappointment to a lot of pony club riders. But the big picture is that if this gets into Victoria, you won’t be allowed to ride your horse out the gate. If you did, it would be a $26,000 fine and/or two years in jail.’

He talked delegates through some of the material on the Department of Primary Industries’ website. There are a couple of important figures to pay particular attention to: Infected Properties (IP’s) and Sick Horses figures. ‘People tend to focus on the latter, but all it does is confirm how rapidly the disease can spread within a particular area. The IP figures are more important; currently they show that the number of places with EI is beginning to plateau in the containment area.

‘The only way it will spread now is by someone really being deliberately stupid. Anyone who tells you, ‘We may as well have it, get used to it’, they don’t realize the full implications of this disease.

‘Some horses just develop a cough and go off their feed. Some horses become very sick. I’ve heard stories that strappers working for Bart Cummins were actually wearing rain coats as they walked infected horses around because of the amount of mucus being sprayed on them as the horses coughed.’ The main thing is to keep them still, keep the fluids up and try to keep them eating. For every day a horse has an elevated temperature and cough, they need a week of complete rest in order to recover properly.

Mark went on to explain how restricted zones of around 10 kilometers are placed around infected properties. ‘The DPI has enormous control in these zones. No one is allowed in. No one is allowed out - unless they know who they are, what they are doing. They’ve got to shower in, shower out, change clothes, wear facemasks, gloves. Noone is allowed to move a horse at all – unless it’s really sick with colic or something. And then you have to get a permit.’ With regard to whether EI can be transferred by air, he said that the research evidence for this is actually weak and largely anecdotal based on experiences in South Africa.

‘There is a lot of focus on controlling the border into Victoria. That’s the major risk area. The great thing about the horse industry is that people are more than willing to dob each other in. It’s great for us because it means we really can stay on top of what is going on. Every call we get, we follow up.’ The closest the virus is to Victoria is Parkes, which is 300 kilometers from the Murray. ‘If we can contain that and keep everything going to plan in NSW, which it is, then we should be in a position to see things turn around.’

The DPI is relying on the goodwill of people to keep EI out of Victoria. ‘We’re relying on people not doing something stupid. We want people to be aware that every time they step out of their property, they’re rolling the dice. If you are finding it hard missing rallies until December, then think worse, much worse if EI breaks out.

So what would life be like if EI took hold in Australia?

According to Burnell, every horse would have to be microchipped to a national standard or branded so that they can be identified and recorded when vaccinated. Who’s going to pay for that? ‘If you think your costs are high now, then throw in say 4 shots of vaccine a year and vet costs. Wholesale it’s 50 bucks – what will the vets charge? When you add it all up, you could be looking at anywhere up to $1,600 extra a year. How many of your members are going to be able to afford that? For many in our community, that may well be more than they paid for their horse.

‘If we get EI, you could find that pony club becomes the preserve of the wealthy. Do we want to see that? This is really short-term pain, for long-term gain. So you miss a few comps and rallies. We’ve all got to see the bigger picture here.’

He urged clubs to follow the recommendations of the PCAV and to follow the commonsense biosecurity guidelines that are issued by the DPI. ‘Go home, change and wash everything – it’s really important.’

In conclusion, he argued the strategy of containment is working. The arrival of hot, dry weather could very well halt the spread of the disease. The plan is to get Australia back to an EI free status and non-vaccinated. He encouraged everyone to ‘hang in there’ and thanked them for their support and efforts of the past few weeks.

Reg. No. A0026915H 3