Ireland not source of equine flu, say vets

An expert in equine viruses has described media reports that Irish horses could have been the cause of a devastating outbreak of equine flu in Australia as "almost impossible".

More than 33,000 horses in Australia have been infected by the virus, an outbreak which has cost the racing industry hundreds of millions of Australian dollars and has also cost Coolmore Stud millions of euro in lost revenue.

Prof Anne Cullinane, a leading equine virologist based at the Irish Equine Centre, told The Irish Times that Australian experts have identified the virus responsible for the outbreak of equine flu as a Wisconsin 2003 type virus - a strain which has never been identified in Ireland or in the UK. "All the scientific evidence suggests that this influenza didn't come from Ireland. We've checked all our viruses, including viruses isolated this summer, from 1989 and there has never been a Wisconsin 2003 type virus here."

Wisconsin 2003, a strain of influenza which broke out in the US and South Africa in 2003, did particular damage to the equine industry in South Africa where horses are rarely vaccinated.

A statement from Coolmore said there was no evidence of equine influenza at the Co Tipperary-based stud before the outbreak in Australia, while there had been one in Japan. Horses from Japan, the UK, the US and Ireland were all held together at the quarantine station in Australia where the infection first occurred.

Dr Des Leadon, the head of clinical pathology at the Irish Equine Centre, said the suggestion that the Australian government was blaming Irish quarantine measures was based on a misreading of the opening statement of an inquiry into the outbreak.

Before the first outbreak in August, Australia was one of the few countries in the world to be free of the disease. Counsel for the Australian government Tony Meagher told the opening of the inquiry in Sydney earlier this week that a Coolmore Stud stallion Encosta de Lago was the first horse to exhibit symptoms of the disease on August 17th.

Another Coolmore stallion in the adjacent stall, Danehill Dancer, subsequently showed symptoms and soon after several others were infected. He said the horses may not have been effectively vaccinated against horse flu, despite certification to the contrary.

Mr Meagher said the pre-export quarantine was served at satellite farms near Coolmore Stud under the supervision of the Irish Department of Agriculture and that supervision appears to have been "ad hoc".

A Department of Agriculture spokesman said it would not be responding to the allegations at this stage, but would if called upon to do so during the inquiry.

Dr Leadon, who has supervised the export of horses to Australia for 21 years, said the suggestion that Irish horses might have caused the outbreak was just one of the scenarios being examined.

"The newspaper coverage in Australia is suggesting a series of links that are not suggested in the opening address of the judicial inquiry," he said. "It is simply one of the scenarios, and it is being reported as a conclusion which it is not."

Mr Meagher was also critical of supervision at Sydney's Eastern Creek quarantine station where the horses were first held and where the equine flu outbreak happened.

He said there was little supervision of biosecurity measures and that officials from the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service did not staff the station outside office hours.