Equine influenza spreads rapidly in horse populations and has the potential to cause illness and loss of performance. Sometimes it causes deaths in young foals and debilitated or old horses.
The forum, Exercise Gammalite, was initiated and funded by Harness Racing Australia, and attracted 60 participants including from Racing Australia, Australian Horse Industry Council and Equestrian Australia, as well as several federal and state chief veterinary officers.
“The EI exercise was a good balance of presentations, discussions and engagement opportunities designed to achieve an increased awareness and understanding around everyone’s roles and responsibilities should an outbreak occur in the future,” Animal Health Australia’s Samantha Allan said.
The 2007 outbreak of EI in Australia caused significant economic and social impacts that demonstrated the need for all horse industry stakeholders to be prepared to respond to an emergency animal disease.
Another major role of the exercise was to identify ways to enhance future collaboration between the industry bodies.
“A great outcome from the exercise was an agreement for AHA to set up a continued forum for the horse industry to come together and discuss animal health topics of concern,” Dr Allan said.
The exercise was named in honour of Gammalite, the first Australian-bred standardbred to win $1 million in Australia.
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