Equine flu - Britain

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All meetings in Britain scheduled for Thursday have been cancelled following three confirmed cases of equine influenza, all from vaccinated horses in an active racing yard.

Meetings at Huntingdon, Doncaster, Ffos Las and Chelmsford will not go ahead after the BHA announced the emergency measure in a statement released late on Wednesday evening.

The statement read: "The BHA, with unanimous support of the industry veterinary committee, has taken the decision to cancel racing at all British racecourses on Thursday 7 February 2019.

"This is following the BHA being informed this evening by the Animal Health Trust of three confirmed Equine Influenza positives from vaccinated horses in an active racing yard.

"Horses from the infected yard have raced today at Ayr and Ludlow, potentially exposing a significant number of horses from yards across the country and in Ireland. The fact that the cases have been identified in vaccinated horses presents a cause for significant concern over welfare and the potential spread of the disease and the action to cancel racing has been viewed as necessary in order to restrict, as far as possible, the risk of further spread of the disease."

Cases of equine influenza had been reported in recent weeks, originally in France but spreading to Ireland and Britain. The BHA issued a warning to racing professionals on January 19 but, until now, no cases in Britain had been confirmed from active yards in vaccinated horses.

The statement continues: "The BHA has worked quickly to identify which yards could have potentially been exposed today and identify the further actions required. The BHA is presently communicating with yards potentially exposed to ensure appropriate quarantine and biosecurity measures are put in place and horse movements restricted to avoid possible further spread of the disease.

"The full extent of potential exposure is unknown and we are working quickly to understand as much as we can to assist our decision making. The BHA is working closely with the Animal Health Trust and will issue a further update tomorrow. We recommend that any trainer who has concerns about the health status of any of their horses should contact their veterinarian."

Equine influenza is an airborne infection and can travel over fairly large distances and even be transferred through humans, so the prospect of it spreading can be high.

Outbreaks are rare, but one such incident in Australia in 2007 brought racing to a halt nationwide on August 25 and, while the Melbourne spring carnival took place under strict bio-security measures, racing in Sydney did not resume until December 1 of that year.

......no loss for most punters.....kak racing at this time of year....:whistle:

Wrong!

UK racing is a big part of SA punting

....that may be.....but only those that enjoy or are hooked on jumps and awt.....not my bag at all (and other purist punters).....poor quality like when we go through that spell in August.....:dry:

Still better than Flamingo Park, Durban poly, PE poly & Scottsville.
Is that the 'purist' racing you are referring to?
Lol.
Get used to it - SA racing is plummeting downhill.
Phum shares declined to R10 this morning.
As they always say in racing : Respect the money........

.....rapidly losing interest in all those SA venues you mention.....but also UK
......thankfully Singapore and Hong Kong are keeping my interest alive....

very sorry for them. hope they contain ASAP

I remember very clearly the Equine flu outbreak here in Gauteng ( then the Transvaal ) circa 1986 when there was no racing here for about 3 or 4 months and we carried on racing elsewhere. Then there was a second outbreak in 2003 where bizarrely horses at Vaal and Randjes were affected but those at Turffontein were initially not - this led to a racemeeting where only Turffontein horses raced, I think that was the first and last meeting in SA where only horses from one centre raced. After that meeting the flu hit them and that was the end of Gauteng racing for a while

If the horses that ran from the affected yard yesterday test negative for equine flu today, then racing is likely to resume very quickly, but if one of them tests positive, then we could be in for a long stoppage.

....that 2003 outbreak was believed to have been spread from the Cape Town quarantine station from UK imported horse/s of which was sent to Rantjiesfontein.....:ohmy:.....at the time there seemed to be a big cover up as some were trying to protect the integrity of quarantine protocols.......:S

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