Equine Influenza is now under control in most states please check with your local DPI if you have any queries relating to your area.
Remember in order to make sure that an outbreak is prevented in future please follow the guidelines put in place during the outbreak.
Guidelines for all Equine Service Providers
For more information contact either your local DPI or the National Hotline on 1800 234 002 (8am - 8pm daily) or visit www.outbreak.gov.au
If you would like to received daily email updates, register on the Australian Horse Industry Council emergency contact database at www.horsecouncil.org.au
Equine Influenza Biosecurity Checklist for Horse Owners/Handlers
Introduction
There are some basic questions that you can ask
yourself to reduce the risk of Equine Influenza (EI) affecting your horses. These questions will assist in you managing
your daily operations and highlight the risks to your horses.
EI affects horses much as the “common flu”
affects humans. EI is easily
transmitted, and produces a range of clinical signs such as high temperatures,
coughing, runny noses, etc. Young,
pregnant, nutritionally and/or physically stressed, and elderly horses are more
susceptible to catching EI, and some of these animals might die. The majority of horses will eventually
recover.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS |
YES |
NO |
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any cough? |
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a watery nasal discharge, (this may be thick and smelly)? |
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depression? |
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loss of appetite? |
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laboured breathing? |
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stiffness? |
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a fever (with a temperature above 39°C)? If horses are stabled, take rectal temperatures twice daily. A fever immediately suggests there is something wrong. If possible, isolate any horses with temperatures. |
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Contact
your private veterinarian or government veterinarian immediately if you suspect
your horse/s has symptoms of EI.
Or
phone the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675
888.
It is essential you adhere to
any stock standstill provisions or other movement restrictions as they apply to
your region/state.
HORSES |
YES |
NO |
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Have you isolated any new arrivals
from resident horses for at least 14 days?
Pay particular attention to horses
that have come from large sales, have been transported over long distances by
commercial transport or recently returned from events. (Where space limits the
isolation of new arrivals, pay more attention to good hygiene and disinfection
practices, use separate equipment where possible, and handle them
last). |
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Are your horses at least 20 metres
from horses on other properties?
Eg. run an electric fence to ensure
that separation can be maintained. |
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Are you seeking immediate veterinary
advice at the first sign of sickness?
These animals need to be isolated
immediately until EI has been ruled out.
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Are you handling, feeding
and watering ALL sick horses last?
If feasible use separate
staff and equipment. You must clean and
disinfect all equipment and protective clothing and wash any bare/exposed body
parts with soap. |
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Do you have records of the movements
of your horses so any contacts can be traced in the event of a disease
outbreak? |
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PEOPLE |
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Are you and your staff
avoiding visiting other properties where horses are
kept?
You do not know the level
of security these horses are kept
under. |
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Have you restricted the access of
visitors to your property?
Minimise the number of visitors and
try to restrict them to people who have not had contact with horses during the
previous 48 hours. Record all personnel
entering your property and where they have previously been for the purposes of
tracing. |
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Have you and your staff
been made aware of the methods for the prevention, identification and control of
EI? |
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Clean and disinfect all clothing and
equipment and if possible, use separate staff and equipment.
Disinfection can be easily achieved
with the use of household products. The
virus is readily killed by common detergents and soaps, household chlorine
bleach, hypochlorites, swimming pool disinfectant and citric acid. Check
concentration and exposure times on the label.
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YES |
NO |
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Are you and your staff vigilant
about hygiene when handling different horses?
Wash hands (under finger nails) and
any exposed skin with soap/detergent between handling different groups of
horses.
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When handling any sick
horses are you using separate protective clothing and
footwear?
Clean and wash all
clothes/footwear with disinfectant to ensure cleanliness.
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EQUIPMENT & FACILITIES |
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Are you using fresh
needles and syringes for every horse when vaccinating or giving
medicine? |
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Are you keeping sick horses’ tack
and associated gear separate from others?
Clean and disinfect after each
use. |
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Are the stables and other equipment
in contact with horses regularly cleaned and disinfected?
Thoroughly clean all surfaces by
removing all snot/mucus, soil and organic material before disinfecting.
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Have you been cleaning and
disinfecting equipment such as tooth rasps, stethoscopes, stomach tubes and
twitches between use on different groups of
horses? |
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Are you maintaining and regularly
checking the boundary? |
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VEHICLES |
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Are all transport vehicles regularly
cleaned and disinfected?
Thoroughly clean all surfaces by
removing all snot/mucus, soil and organic material before disinfecting.
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Do you check all livestock vehicles
entering your property for cleanliness?
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EQUINE INFLUENZA
27 September 2007
Better
human hygiene needed to wipe out EI
The need for strict biosecurity around horses
has been highlighted by poor human hygiene causing the spread equine influenza
(EI) to unexpected locations.
NSW deputy chief veterinary officer Steve Dunn
said strict biosecurity was essential for every person coming into contact with
horses.
“It’s best if people keep their horses isolated
from any outside visitors and avoid visiting other properties with horses,” he
said.
“If contact with horses on more than one
property is essential, people need to follow simple personal hygiene guidelines.”
People visiting other properties or venues with
horses should shower, wash their hair, blow their noses and put on clean
clothes and shoes before they enter a new site.
EI is easily destroyed by thorough cleaning and
disinfection with household detergent, soap, bleach or citric acid.
On-farm biosecurity and disinfection information
is available at the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) website www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/equine-influenza
and in an information package available
at NSW DPI and Rural Land Protection Board offices across the State.
Media
contact: (02) 6391 3455
NSW Equine Influenza and donation hotline: 1800 675 888
Basic Steps to Preventing the Spread of Horse Flu
- Keep your horse(s) at home or wherever they are currently situated. Even if your horses are well and you do not think they could have horse flu, do not attempt to move them even if you think there is a safer, a better or a more convenient place to keep them.
- Look after your own horse(s) but avoid visiting horses at other places, even if they belong to friends and even if you think the other horses are well and not at risk of having horse flu. The greatest risk of spread is horse people visiting other horse people and / or horses!
- Likewise, until the epidemic is over, don’t allow other people to visit your horses.
- If you have absolutely no alternative to visiting other horses venues or horses (eg you work there or need to feed someone else’s horses) please shower and wash carefully and put on a completely fresh set of clothes (including shoes) after contact with your own horses and before you go to the other horses. Please repeat the process when you leave the other horses before you come home to your own horses. Do not put discarded clothes on again before washing them. Wash your clothes in a full wash cycle and scrub your shoes with a disinfectant for 5 minutes.
- Horse equipment (saddles, bridles, rugs, feedbins, farrier tools, horse dentist equipment, vet equipment etc) are very difficult to disinfect and should only be used within one horse establishment / farm.
- Horse flu is so infectious that you can safely assume that if one horse in your stables / farm has the disease, all the horses will get it. Precautions within your stables / farm are not necessary – but it is crucial that we cease the contact between horses in different stables / farms until the epidemic dies down.
- If you suspect that your horse has horse flu (a deep hacking cough is the main symptom, but horses may have a temperature [normal horse temperature is 37.5 degrees to 38.5 degrees], a runny nose or be unwell) please contact your local vet. It is possible that your vet may be unable to attend your horses due to the scale of the epidemic – if so please ring the Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.
- Stay up to date on the epidemic by regularly (each day at least) visiting your horse organisation website or the Australian Horse Industry Council Website www.horsecouncil.org.au. If you register on the Horse Emergency Contact Database (HECD) at www.horsecouncil.org.au you will receive updates by email.
(Prepared by Dr Vince Roche)
Livestock & Business Centre
PO Box 189
Kiama, NSW, 2533
Phone: 02 4232 3333
Fax: 02 4232 3350
info@lbcentre.com.au