EIA quarantine area

brighteyes

brighteyes

Pooh-Bah
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How would that work then
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Midges (ETA any biting insect which flies from horse to horse) fly from A to B and presumably from infected to non-infected horse, which then means the clear one now has a death sentence...

Are horses kept in huge refrigerated and insecticided barns. Like it has been pointed out, one midge can be the start of a countrywide epidemic, and I don't see any way of stopping it.

When will tests be fully clear on the horses which travelled/stabled with the two infected ones?

Runaway train scenario
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I cant answer your questions on the stance of DEFRA regarding quarantine but I would like to point out that it isnt just midges that pass on this virus, horse flies do also.
 
Its not a runaway train. The rest of the world deals quite efficiently with it and Britain just needs to follow similar guidelines.
 
I am in the States and we have EIA, however it is under control. It has been isolated to a few states, some of which have ranches set up to take those horses that test positive whose owners want to pay the expense to keep them in permanent quarantine. We have laws requiring that horses crossing state lines have a current negative coggins (usually within 6 months to a year from the date of travel) and virtually all competition facilities require one as well. It is a scary disease, but fairly easy to contain. Of course, it needs to be figured out how far it has spread before it can be contained, but I am hoping for the best for everyone involved.
 
Bear in mind the States are considerably larger than the UK and so have a lot more space (ie the middle of nowhere) to send infected horses. The UK is a lot more densely populated - where could we send our infected horses if this is meant to be the answer?
 
Most of the countries that EIA affects in the rest of the world shares land borders with other countries where current negative Coggins tests are required for the entry of travelling horses. Britain is an island sharing no land borders with any other country there fore it is very easy for DEFRA to manage this in a far easier manner than in the rest of the world. The implimentation of negative Coggins for all horses entering Britain is all that is needed for Britain to remain unaffected. Because DEFRA have slacked on this (and other things) over recent years is now proving to be a bit of a downfall for livestock.

Maybe a petition could be forwarded to 10 Downing St demanding horses only enter the country with current negative Coggins. Why none of their ministers have not figured this one out is quite incredible though.
 
Hopefully we will have another cold snap which will put pay to all biting insects for a while. Could it be sorted before spring when the onslaught of bitey things starts though?
 
Dont send them anywhere. They shouldnt be in the country and if negative Coggins were mandatory, they wouldnt be. Any horse proving positive should be destroyed immediately.
 
Oh - I agree they shouldn't come in in the first place. I was just responding to the post saying that the states can deal with it efficiently by sending them off to ranches. Just wondering where we'd be able to find enough spare space in the UK to do the same!
 
If this disease was as contageous as people are worried it is, all horses in the UK (not to mention around the entire world) would already be infected.

Flies has a specific range within which they fly, I believe 4 miles is the usual quarranteen area for diseases spread by blood-sucking insects.

Furthermore, the insect HAS to be a blood-sucking insect, not merely a biting insect, it has to such sufficient quantities of blood for the virus to be active and it has to sting the next animal within a limited period of time (studies seem to show that 30 minutes is the optimum time for EIA transmision).

This explains why although the disease is present in other areas, it is contained! It is important to identify a-symptomatic carriers, so the DEFRA decision to test more horses is a sensible one, this is the best way to contain this.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Dont send them anywhere. They shouldnt be in the country and if negative Coggins were mandatory, they wouldnt be. Any horse proving positive should be destroyed immediately.

[/ QUOTE ]

The thing is though that depending on the country of origin a negative coggins test is required.

These horses were not destined for the UK and came in with dodgy paperwork by the sounds of it.
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Oh no, not meant to be the answer. The US has states like North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, etc that have huge areas with very little population. The answer in the UK (and usually in the US) is euthanasia for the affected ones and preventing it's spread by requiring Coggins testing. My point was simply, that it can be controlled once they have figured out how wide spread it is. I agree that in theory it should be very easy to prevent another outbreak once this one is taken care of. I really hope that it is isolated to one facility.
 
There was an outbreak here in Ireland in 2006. the dept of Ag managed it very efficiently by testing and quarantining at risk horses until they had 3 clear tests. All horses that tested positive were destroyed.
 
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