Australia clears Irish horses over equine flu outbreak

THE AUSTRALIAN government says Irish horses were not responsible for an outbreak of equine flu in the country last year - contrary to some speculation at the time.

Last autumn an outbreak of equine flu hit Australia, bringing its racing and breeding industries to a standstill for several weeks.

A number of Irish horses, including stallions belonging to the Tipperary-based Coolmore racehorse breeding operation, and several show jumpers, were in Australia at the time.

At various stages, media speculated that these were to blame, and the matter was raised during the inquiry late last year.

However yesterday Australia's agriculture minister Tony Burke released the findings of the inquiry carried out by former judge Ian Callinan into the outbreak.

This found that the disease was probably brought into the country by a Japanese horse.

The report blames the outbreak on laxness at the two New South Wales quarantine centres where the outbreak began, Eastern Creek and Spotswood. Both housed horses from a number of countries, including Japan.

It also states that none of the Irish horses at Eastern Creek was infected before they arrived at the quarantine station.

Some of the speculation about Coolmore stemmed from the fact that two Irish horses at Eastern Creek, including Coolmore stallion Encosta De Lago, displayed symptoms, but tests showed that this happened after the outbreak.

Similarly, it states that horses from the US and Britain, which were housed at the Australian quarantine stations, did not have the virus before their arrival at Eastern Creek and Spotswood.

Tests established that the horses in Australia were hit by the same virus strain as that which sparked outbreaks in Japan and the US.

"The best explanation for the simultaneous presence of infected horses at Eastern Creek and Spotswood quarantine stations is that there was a common source of infection and that it came with the horses from Japan rather than the United States," the report continues.

However, Mr Callinan says that workers at the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service failed to decontaminate themselves after dealing with infected horses and this spread the virus and sparked the epidemic.

Coolmore owns a stud in Australia's Hunter Valley and regularly sends stallions from its Tipperary base to stand there during the southern hemisphere breeding season. This is common practice among European and American stud farms.

Coolmore did not comment on the report's findings yesterday.