“This is great news for the national horse industry, and ends months of industry disruption” said Barry Smyth, President of AHIC. “Costs of the outbreak and interruptions to the horse industry run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. We’ll never know the true extent of the losses.”
This positive outcome is a tribute to the government-industry partnership which has worked together tirelessly since August 2007 to eradicate this highly infectious exotic disease. This news means that all the restrictions and reporting requirements have been removed.”
The announcement comes after months of disruption to the horse industry involving movement restrictions and close monitoring and testing of thousands of horses.
In the past 6 months, a large amount of active and passive surveillance has shown no trace of any residual EI infections. Monitoring and surveillance will continue until 25 December 2008, though not with the same intensity. All testing requirements to satisfy World Organisation of Animal Health regulations have been completed.
With the total eradication of EI in Australia, there is no longer any need for ongoing vaccination programs. It is also hoped that with the implementation of the Callinan Report’s recommendations, rigorous controls of imported horses in the future will mean that we do not have to deal with this disease again.
Horse owners will still need to remember the lessons learned recently about biosecurity, to ensure that they are prepared for other possible future disease outbreaks.