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Notes on why we DON’T NEED TO VACCINATE FOR EI in Australia (April 2010)

 

Equine Influenza (EI)

• EI is caused by a virus
• EI in horses can cause all of the same problems in horses as occur in people who get the ‘flu.
• It can cause a range of disease from a sniffle and a high temperature through to pneumonia and death
• Just like people ‘flu, there are different types of EI and they can change each year. This year the ‘flu may be mild. The next year it could change and produce much worse disease. You never know, that’s one of the reasons we want to keep it out of Australia.

 

Vaccination does not stop horses getting EI

• Because EI can change, new vaccines have to be developed regularly and you have to vaccinate 2 or 3 times a year to be effective.
• Even when vaccinated, some horses will get sick and others will look healthy but spread the disease.
•  Most other countries have horse flu and every year their horse owners have to pay for vaccination, veterinary bills to treat sick horses and extra administrative costs needed to try to ensure infected horses are kept away from events.
• Every year overseas horse owners train their horses for events but they can never be sure they will get to the events. The flu can strike at any time, wasting months of training.
• Just like in people, some strains of EI can kill especially younger and older horses.
• In 2007 EI was brought to Australia in a horse that had been vaccinated. It spread it to other vaccinated horses in the ECQS and then the virus escaped from quarantine. Vaccination in this case hid the disease from quarantine officials.
• If vaccination is allowed in Australia before an outbreak occurs, it will mean that if EI does get into Australia again, it will be almost impossible to detect quickly, vaccinated infected horses will be slow to show symptoms and EI will spread rapidly ensuring that it will be almost impossible to eradicate.

 

Australia is one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t have EI.

• As a result horse owners don’t have to see their horses get sick with the flu
• Some horses in Australia are scratched from some events but not because of EI.
• The thoroughbred racing industry argues that countries such as Ireland, the UK and USA live with EI and don’t stop events because of EI. This is true but they don’t keep records of how many horses failed to make events, were scratched or contracted EI at events.
• Parts of the thoroughbred racing industry would rather let your horse get sick with EI than stop any races to eradicate the disease.
• There is no need to vaccinate for EI because we don’t have it.

 

The costs of living with EI

• If we did have EI, horse owners who wanted to make sure their horses had the best chance of not getting EI would need to get their vet out to vaccinate their horses 2 to 3 times a year. (The vaccine would only be available for use by a vet). You work out the costs. The vet’s time plus the cost of the vaccine plus mileage up to 3 times a year every year.
• In countries with EI, the organisers of an event have to put in place administrative procedures to ensure that only recently vaccinated horses attend their event. This adds to the cost of holding an event and increases costs for horse owners.
•  The number of horses scratched from events will increase if EI is allowed to survive in Australia. If a horse is scratched because of EI you will have wasted months of travel, training and preparation. How much is training and preparation worth?
• The Weekend Australian March 27-28 reported a secret government report by an expert review panel estimated that it ‘would cost up to $360 a head for vaccination and monitoring would add $220 to the cost. So called passport management of the movement of vaccinated animals would add another $60 per head taking the total cost to almost $1bn in today’s dollars over a 20 year period. ‘

 

Quarantine procedures should be able to keep EI out of Australia

• The Callinan inquiry showed that;
  • EI got into Australia because of poor quarantine procedures at Eastern Creek Quarantine Station (ECQS) in NSW
  • At the same time, horses at the Spotswood Quarantine Station in Victoria were also infected with EI but it did not escape from this quarantine station because they had good procedures in place at the time.
• Improved testing and procedures have now been implemented in Australian quarantine stations and it is very unlikely that EI will be able to get to Australia again if these procedures are followed.

 

If you want to eradicate a disease, you have to find it quickly before it is too widespread

• Although unlikely it is not impossible that EI could escape quarantine.
• If vaccination is allowed in Australia before an outbreak occurs, it will mean that if EI does get into Australia again, it will be almost impossible to detect quickly ensuring that it will be almost impossible to eradicate.
• Horses that are vaccinated can be infected and spread the virus even though they don’t look sick.

 

Australia is one of the only countries in the world that has successfully eradicated EI

• Australia was able to eradicate EI in 2007/8 because it was able to find the first infected horses relatively quickly and put in place a response very quickly.
• Government and horse owners worked together to stop EI spreading and to eliminate it.
• If there had been a population of vaccinated horses in Australia at the time it would have been almost impossible to find the disease quickly enough to eradicate it and we would already be living with EI.
• Infected, vaccinated horses would have spread the disease widely before they were detected ensuring that it would be almost impossible to eradicate. 

 

Costs of Eradication

• It’s estimated that it cost around $100M to eradicate EI from NSW and Queensland in 2007.
• The Commonwealth government paid further amounts, in the order of $263 million, to some horse owners because of loss of income during the eradication program.
• Most horse owners don’t make an income from their horses. They keep them for pleasure. Who do you think got the most of this ‘loss of income money’? The risk creators?

 

Who should pay for an eradication program?

• The Australian, state and territory governments have cost sharing agreements with all major livestock industries except horses.
• These agreements share costs between all levels of government and the relevant industry.
• A levy to cover a livestock industry’s portion can be raised from livestock owners in small amounts over a long period of time and saved in an account or the levy can be set at zero until it is needed and then collected over a period of time so the impact on individuals is small.

  

Why did Minister Burke’s levy legislation fail before?

• Because people were scared they were going to be charged for the EI eradication program in 2007
• Because people did not understand the consequences of having to live with EI and the amount of money they were saving each year by not having EI in the country.
• Because people correctly blamed the Australian government for letting it into Australia and felt they shouldn’t have to pay.
• Because they were concerned that they may have to pay a large amount over a very short period.

 

Who wants to vaccinate and why?

Thoroughbred Breeders Australia (TBA)

• TBA import the horses most likely to bring EI into Australia i.e. shuttle stallions
• Imported horses have to go through a number of weeks quarantine before they can come to Australia and after they get here so that they do not introduce EI into Australia. They would prefer not to do this as it costs them time and money.
• Could it be that they would like EI to become widespread in Australia as this might reduce their time in quarantine?
• They can afford to vaccinate and pay for costs if the disease becomes established in Australia
• They do not care that most horse owners are not wealthy and should not have to pay for vaccination or treatment for a disease they could avoid having in Australia
• They believe that if EI gets in again their horses should have no restrictions placed upon them because they have been vaccinated and EI should be allowed to spread allowing individuals the ability to vaccinate if they wish.
• TBA are the major risk creators. Their shuttle stallions brought EI into Australia in 2007.
• If they used Artificial Insemination they could eliminate the risk.
• They argue that Artificial Insemination doesn’t work in horses.
• It works in other horses e.g. standardbreds, performance horses, recreational etc
• 50 years ago artificial insemination didn’t work in cattle. Now it does because dollars were spent and research was carried out to solve the problem.
• If TBA spent even a small part of their service fees on Artificial Insemination the risk of EI entering Australia would be reduced to negligible.
• TBA may be better advised to financially contribute to improved quarantine measures and keep EI out rather than put all at risk with unnecessary EI vaccinations

 

Parts of the Thoroughbred Racing Industry(TRI)

• The Thoroughbred Racing Industry imports race horses for major races.
• After the TBA, the TRI is the most likely group to import horses and introduce EI  into Australia
• The part of the industry that runs races lost money during the last EI outbreak because they couldn’t hold races.
• They believe this was because of the regulations put in place to assist with eradication.
• They forget that their horses were sick and could not race.
• They would rather let the disease enter and become widespread in Australia than eradicate it.
• They do not care if horses get sick with EI.
• Their major concern is that races continue. If a horse is scratched with EI they don’t care as long as they can get another horse and the race is run.
• They look overseas and see countries such as the UK, Ireland and USA where EI is widespread and note that racing goes on regardless of outbreaks of EI.
• They do not keep records of the number of horses scratched or not raced because of EI.

 

Why is Minister Burke prepared to let the risk creators i.e. the Australian Thoroughbred Breeders and parts of the Thoroughbred Racing Industry vaccinate and put the rest of the horse industry at risk of living with EI forever?

• He says it is because there is no agreement or levy with the horse industry to share the costs if it gets here again.
  • True but the horse industry has not been given time to consider all of the facts and to consider the minuses of having to live with EI.
  • The horse industries are presently considering these facts and looking at ways to share the costs of future outbreaks if they occur.

 

 

What is the best alternative for the future?

‘The Beale report, handed to the government last September but not yet released,  concludes that the least cost option on EI is to continue to maintain an effective quarantine and to move quickly to eradicate the disease in the event of another outbreak.

 

However, establishing a wide pool of vaccinated horses in the thoroughbred sector increased the risk of entrenching disease and was “significantly more expensive”, raising “difficult equity issues”. This was because “most of these costs are borne by the recreational, standard and eventing sectors rather than the thoroughbred sector’ (The Australian 29 March 2010).

 

Why do you need to help the politicians?

• Democracy works best when politicians are not left alone to make decisions
• You cannot allow the smallest but richest part of the horse industry i.e. the Australian Thoroughbred Breeders and parts of the Thoroughbred Racing Industry to influence our politicians and impose additional costs on the largest but less well off sector of the horse community.

 

What do you need to do to make sure that you do not have to live with EI?

• You need to accept that you are benefiting from not having EI in Australia.
  • You are saving because you don’t have to vaccinate,
  • You don’t have to see your horses get sick and possibly die from EI
  • You don’t have to pay increased registration fees for events because you want to keep infected horses away from events
  • You don’t have to keep a passport with all of your EI vaccinations recorded in it
• You need to urgently write to Minister Burke, your Premier, your State Minister for Agriculture, and your local member expressing;
  •  your support for maintaining our quarantine barrier to ensure EI and other diseases can’t enter Australia,
  • Your support for an eradication program if EI does manage to get into Australia again
  • Your opposition to having to live with EI and its consequences
  • Your opposition to any vaccination of horses before an outbreak occurs because it will mean that it will be unlikely that EI will be able to be eradicated if vaccination is allowed before an outbreak occurs
  • Your support for the government to charge the major risk creators (i.e. the Australian Thoroughbred Breeders and the parts of the thoroughbred racing industry that imports race horses) with a levy to assist with eradication of future outbreaks
  • Your support for less well off horse owners (i.e. other than the major risk creators) to contribute a smaller portion of a levy in acceptance that all horse owners benefit from not having to live with EI
  • Demanding that the report from Roger Beale on future options with regard to EI is released to the general horse owning public immediately and,
  • Suggesting that at the very least, the decision to allow vaccination is delayed until the horse owners of Australia have had an opportunity to consider the, as yet, unreleased report from Roger Beale, on future options with regard to EI.