May 2008

The Threat Of The Shrinking World: Hats Off to Australia

Quick action stopped the spread of equine influenza.

In early August 2007, five breeding stallions from Japan were admitted to a quarantine facility in New South Wales, Australia. Before long, horses at the facility began running high fevers and showing respiratory disease. The disease was confirmed to be equine influenza. Somehow, it escaped the quarantine and sick horses were showing up at barns and racetracks. What followed was a nightmare that cost the equine industry over $100 million.

Australia had previously been free of equine influenza. As a result, none of the horses had any immunity to it, and none had been vaccinated. Because of how highly infectious flu is, and because it can spread both by horse contact…