On August 25, 2007, Australian government authorities reported an outbreak of equine influenza (EI). Prior to this outbreak only Australia, Iceland and New Zealand had never reported an occurrence of equine influenza. You can read a short report on the outbreak at the United States Department of Agriculture web site (here, PDF 129k).

A couple things… 1) Given the size of the Australian horse industry and given the prevalence of regional and international horse shipping, it is amazing that Australia hasn’t reported EI to this point. 2) Because Australia’s equine population has never been exposed to EI, the horses there have no built up immunity (based on vaccination or on natural exposure). Australia is importing large quantities of EI vaccine and vaccinating its equine population. It’s a long way to go, starting at 0. 3) The risk to your horse and mine, of course, is very low given that we’re half a world away. But it’s an interesting story (no EI to this point down under) and it’s still a good reminder to be mindful of infectious disease — to develop a holistic plan to combat infectious disease in your horse and facility.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 12:20 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.