The Virtual FormGuide - Bill Saunders - Horse Imports, Exports And Breeding All Stuffed

Horse Imports, Exports And Breeding All Stuffed

The implications of the Equine Influenza crisis are only just beginning to dawn on many industry participants.

Consider for instance the fact that Australia is no longer a "safe" country to either send horses to or receive them from.

The current status of the Eastern Creek quarantine centre, riddled with EI as it is, must mean that no sensible horse owner would want to send it to Australia. Effectively we have no large scale quarantine centre left to process horse imports through.

Equally, what country would accept a horse exported from Australia under the current circumstances?

This can only mean that the shuttle stallions cooped up at Eastern Creek, even if they are released in a month or so to perform Australian stud duties, may well not be allowed to head back to the Northern Hemisphere at the end of the year.

The lucrative market for Australian horse exports of all breeds will have evaporated at least until the EI epidemic is firmly under control. This could easily be the end of the year or longer.

Similarly, even within Australia, many breeders will be seriously considering their options for this breeding season.

If they have a mare in foal, do they dare risk the health of the new born foal by travelling to a stud which may harbour EI?

Even if they have a dry mare, would they risk infecting their horses at home by walking her into a stud and bringing her back straight away?

My guess is that many breeders will ensure that this year's foal stays healthy by foaling down at home and not sending their mares anywhere.

The biggest breeding state, New South Wales is a basket case anyway in terms of travelling horses at present and likely to remain so for at least a month.

Even the much vaunted boom for colonial non-shuttling sires will be limited by mare owner's reluctance to either use what they may see as an inferior product, or risk infecting their mares with EI by sending them away.

There are no easy answers for the breeding and horse export industries. Maybe this is the way that the current boom in bloodstock values comes to an end. Not with an economic depression as most would have thought, but with real losses caused to large numbers of industry participants by a totally unforseen epidemic.