Quarantine Protocol Led To The Outbreak of EI

Wednesday, October 3, 2007
"Quarantine Protocol Led To The Outbreak Of Equine Influenza''
Kate McClymont

QUARANTINE procedures were not followed at Sydney Airport and Eastern Creek quarantine station, the opening day of the Federal Government's inquiry into the outbreak of the equine influenza has heard.Tony Meagher, SC, counsel assisting the retired High Court judge Ian Callinan, told the inquirythat before August, Australia and Iceland were among the few countries to be free of the equinevirus. Now more than 33,000 horses in NSW and Queensland were infected.The inquiry heard that in preparation for the breeding season, 43 stallions arrived at EasternCreek, on Sydney's outskirts, between August 3 and 8. The horses were to spend a fortnight there before the majority went to Coolmore and Darley studs in the Hunter Valley.On August 17, a Coolmore stallion Encosta de Lago showed symptoms of equine influenza. Three days later, in the adjoining stable, Danehill Dancer showed symptoms. By August 23 all five Coolmore stallions that had been in row E stables at Eastern Creek returned positive swabs for the virus.These horses had arrived from the Coolmore stud in Ireland on August 7.Questions were raised about the adequacy of Irish quarantine procedures. Mr Meagher noted several stallions spent their pre-entry quarantine period at farms associated with Coolmore stud in Ireland under the supervision of the Irish Department of Agriculture. "That supervision appears to be ad hoc," he said.Mr Meagher said the horses may not have been effectively vaccinated against horse flu, despitecertification to the contrary.Meanwhile, only one day after Encosta de Lago first exhibited symptoms, 215 horses attended a weekend equestrian event at Carroll's Ranch near Maitland on August 18 and 19. The following week various outbreaks of the virus around NSW and Queensland were traced to horses which attended the event.How did the virus get from Eastern Creek into the general horse population? One possibilityraised was that it could have been spread before the animals arrived at Eastern Creek by people or equipment at Sydney Airport. The inquiry heard there was a throng of people at the airport - grooms, vets, owners, truck drivers, ground staff and even a film crew documenting stallions on their way to Darley Stud.The film, which will be screened at the hearing, reveals that most people at the airport when the horses arrived were not wearing protective clothing.The situation at Eastern Creek was just as bad. While a vet from the Australian QuarantineInspection Service (AQIS) attended to horses within a day or so of their arrival, for the rest oftheir time in quarantine the horses were attended to by their own grooms, private vets andfarriers. Private caterers arrived with food daily.Most of those tending the horses "did so without wearing any protective clothing and withoutcarrying out any decontamination procedures before leaving the quarantine station," Mr Meagher said. It was suggested that people or equipment from Eastern Creek may have spread the virus to horses which then took part in the Carroll's Ranch event. To have passed the virus on, a horse would have had to be exposed to the virus between three and six days earlier.Mr Meagher urged people to come forward if they had witnessed a horse coughing before the Carroll's Ranch event.The first day of public hearings will be on November 8.