Alerts
3/25/2010 - AHIC's Position : No EI Disease - No Vaccination
BRIEF:
AHIC's Position : No EI Disease - No Vaccination
Background
The Australian Horse Industry Council (AHIC) has a policy that Equine Influenza (EI) vaccination should not be permitted in the absence of an incursion of EI virus. The recent meeting of AHIC's Industry Advisory Committee (IAC) held on the 26th February unanimously endorsed the AHIC Board's policy. Present at this meeting were representatives from :
• Arabian Horse Society
• Australian Pony Stud Book Society
• Australian Stock Horse Society
• Equestrian Australia
• Harness Racing Australia
• HorseSA
• National Campdraft Council of Aust
• Polocrosse Association of Australia Inc
• Pony Club Australia (observer)
• Queensland Horse Council
• Riding Pony Society of Australia
• Victorian Horse Council Inc.
• Welsh Pony & Cob Society of Australia Inc
• Western Australia Horse Council
In recent months Thoroughbred Breeders Australia (TBA) have been promoting vaccination of thoroughbreds (TB's) as our “insurance policy” against a new EI incursion in the absence of an Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement (EADRA) and its associated levy mechanism. The levy enabling legislation was defeated in the Senate in February 2009.
On the 9th February 2010 an EI Industry Workshop was held by DAFF to discuss a “Scenario 5” which was a supplement to the soundly reviewed Scenarios 1 - 4 that were evaluated in the Report of the Equine Influenza Expert review Panel. Scenario 5 was based on 80% of TB's and Standardbreds (SB's) being vaccinated as insurance against an EI incursion which was a 1 in 30 year event.
AHIC is also concerned that the Report of the Equine Influenza Expert Review Panel and the even more secret “Scenario 5” were given a very restricted distribution for comment. Many of those with expert knowledge and with integral roles in the day to day management of the horse industry were not given an opportunity to respond. It was only after some pressure that AHIC was given permission to involve its Industry Advisory Committee which was difficult, given the time constraints over the holiday period.
Perhaps even more surprising was the failure to consult with AQIS's Horse Industry Consultative Committee, which is all about importation of horses in an appropriate manner.
The Callinan Inquiry and the Beale Report recommended improvements to the quarantine process and Prof Shergold in his 3 reports has confirmed the satisfactory implementation of the improvements. This new high standard of biosecurity means that the risk of EI entering Australia via another quarantine failure is minimal.
Proper management of the importation of horses will prevent an EI incursion.
Why not vaccinate in addition as the TB industry is seeking to do?
Vaccination, if a vaccine was available, is expensive with Scenario 5 being costed at between $348M and $609M over 20 years, depending on the timing of the incursion and the spread of vaccination.
Vaccination of TB's will not prevent these horses from becoming infected although the clinical signs will be limited or not even recognized. This may lead to transmission of the EI virus to the naïve non-vaccinated population either directly (horse to horse) or indirectly (contaminated person or vehicle etc.).
Vaccination in its own right is not without some morbidity and if newly vaccinated horses are not managed appropriately clinical problems may arise.
In Scenario 5 passive monitoring of the vaccinated population is practiced which means normal husbandry procedures continue at no cost. To ensure that there is early recognition of an EI incursion into the vaccinated TB population active surveillance is required and this is expensive.
In order that active surveillance can be implemented a company would need to go through the regulatory (OGTR) and registration (APVMA) processes to bring an appropriate vaccine into Australia. An appropriate vaccine is one such as Proteq-Flu which will allow the differentiation between horses that have been vaccinated from those which have been but vaccinated but also become infected. The AHIC does not support short circuiting of the normal practices required for long registration in the absence of any EI incursion.
Vaccination may impact on Australia's current status of “Freedom from EI” especially without active surveillance.
*Vaccination will impact on the movement of horses to New Zealand with a predicted quarantine cost of $6,300 per horse compared with the current cost of $0. This will affect sales of horses to New Zealand and it will also reduce the number of racing and equestrian horses coming to Australia for competition.
Any vaccination policy in the absence of disease will increase the risk of EI becoming endemic with ongoing disruption of horse events and dramatic increase in costs of vaccination becomes widely used.
IF YOU AGREE WRITE TO THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURES OF EACH STATE AND MINISTER BURKE URGENTLY.
FILE:
Contact Dept of Ag Ministers & Shadow Ministers.xls (26 kb)