AUSTRALIAN EQUINE INFLUENZA : Japan likely origin

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, an investigation by the Australian Animal Health Laboratory has determined that Japan was the likely origin of the equine influenza outbreak that brought Australia’s Thoroughbred industry to a screeching halt last year. The epidemic wreaked havoc with racing and breeding operations around the country, ultimately costing the industry hundreds of millions of dollars. It had originally been suspected that horses from Ireland brought the disease into the country, but Dr James Watson, the veterinarian who led the AAHL investigation, said at a public hearing last week, “Putting all those facts together… it points to some form of common exposure of the horses, which favours the origin somewhere in Japan or transit there from.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News