Equine flu crisis: biggest shutdown since foot and mouth hits horse racing
All race meetings in Britain have been cancelled until next Wednesday at the earliest while the sport’s governing body awaits test results from more than 100 stables that could have been exposed to equine influenza.
Donald McCain’s yard in Cheshire, where three cases of equine influenza in vaccinated horses were confirmed on Wednesday evening, sent a single runner to meetings in Ayr and Ludlow earlier that day, potentially exposing many more horses to the disease.
The cancellations, ordered by the British Horseracing Authority, will cost the industry tens of millions of pounds and is the biggest loss of fixtures for reasons other than freezing weather since the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001 when even the Cheltenham Festival was lost. It leaves trainers on tenterhooks with next month’s renewal of the most important meeting of the year on the horizon.
All four meetings scheduled in Britain on Thursday were abandoned following news of the positive tests, and in all at least 23 meetings will be lost as a result of the outbreak. These include the Betfair Hurdle card at Newbury on Saturday, one of the most valuable meetings of the National Hunt season.
Equine influenza is endemic in Britain’s horse population, but vaccination against the disease is mandatory for thoroughbreds and most other breeds that are used competitively, such as eventers. As a result, outbreaks are extremely rare, but the fact that all three of the horses affected at McCain’s stable had been vaccinated prompted immediate concern that a new strain of the disease could spread rapidly through the racing industry.
Equine influenza causes similar symptoms in horses to those suffered by humans; including fever, nasal discharge and a harsh, dry cough. It is rarely fatal, though it can lead to complications including pneumonia and some horses can take several weeks, or even months, to recover fully from an infection.
As a result, an epidemic has the potential to cause massive disruption to a country’s racing programme or even shut it down altogether. An outbreak in New South Wales in 2007 resulted in the closure of Sydney’s racetracks from late August until early December, although this was in an unvaccinated racehorse population.
McCain also sent a runner to Wolverhampton’s meeting on Monday evening and all horses in the stables that competed on the card will be tested for equine influenza, along with all runners at the meetings at Ludlow and Ayr on Wednesday. This includes several from stables in Ireland, including five from the yard of Gordon Elliott, one of Ireland’s most successful trainers. Those five horses were diverted to an isolation stable 20 miles from Elliott’s County Meath base when they returned home after competing at Ayr.
Since the incubation period for equine influenza can be up to 72 hours, samples will be taken on Friday from horses that raced at Ayr and Ludlow and sent to the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket for analysis. The BHA said on Thursday evening that its veterinary team “has been in contact with more than 50 trainers and veterinarians to allow it to make an informed assessment of the risk of equine influenza spreading”.
The BHA added: “While no further positive tests have been received, at least three more days are required before it will be possible to make a decision about whether it is safe to resume racing. The disease can take up to three days before symptoms are visible, meaning it will take until Sunday at the earliest before the BHA can gather all the information required.
“This approach will allow samples to be collected and assessed by the Animal Health Trust in order that a fully informed decision can be made on Monday. This may then allow declarations to take place on Tuesday in time for racing on Wednesday.”
McCain, who saddled Ballabriggs to win the Grand National in 2011 and has more than 100 horses in his stable, said “the BHA were contacted immediately” once the positive result for equine influenza had been confirmed and that he is “liaising closely with them about biosecurity and management of all the horses at Bankhouse”.
McCain said: “We are scrupulous about observing the health status of horses in our care and taking the necessary steps to treat any condition that may affect them. It follows we would never race any horses that we could have known were infected.
“Over the last two months, all potential runners have been scoped and their blood checked within 36 hours of their races to ensure that only healthy horses compete for the yard.
“When new horses arrive at our yard we try as much as possible to keep them separate, but at this stage cannot know if the infection came from recent arrivals or from horses returning from racing. We have three confirmed cases and this morning have taken blood and swabs from all the others for testing.”
ITV Racing, which had been due to cover both Newbury’s valuable meeting and significant races at Warwick this weekend, said it will instead show five races from Naas in Ireland. Ireland’s Horseracing Regulatory Board said racing will continue in the country “at present” but that runners from Britain will not be permitted to run in Ireland until further notice.