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https://www.britishhorseracing.com/press_releases/racing-thursday-7-february-cancelled-due-equine-influenza-cases/
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Racing on Thursday 7 February cancelled due to equine influenza cases
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA), with unanimous support of the BHA’s industry veterinary committee, has taken the decision to cancel racing at all British racecourses on Thursday 7 February
still got thurles
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA), with unanimous support of the BHA’s industry veterinary committee, has taken the decision to cancel racing at all British racecourses on Thursday 7 February
still got thurles
Will the Gordon Elliot runners be running, as he had runners at Ayr today?
If his horses have not got home yet surely will not be stabled back home
As far as I can see only DM had runners at both meetings.
But it's not his fault as the report states the horses had been vaccinated.
But it's not his fault as the report states the horses had been vaccinated.
Regarding the Elliott runners, surely it will depend on whether or not today's runners have arrived home before the Thurles runners have left?
huge ramifications for the next few weeks or just an over reaction ??
The fact that the cases have been identified in vaccinated horses presents a cause for significant concern over welfare and the potential spread of the disease
only says a day, i guess the brain trust at the BHA will decide tomorrow
Has this happened before and does anyone have an idea of how long this may last?
never heard of it last 40 years
did we not have a break during the foot and mouth out break ?
did we not have a break during the foot and mouth out break ?
thurles and meydan on the satellite will have to suffice
Someone's been called back to work, on the RP site now
https://www.racingpost.com/news/bha-issues-warning-to-trainers-over-equine-influenza-outbreak/362320
Interesting article back on January 19 looks like it may have been around for a while and trainers were warned.
Interesting article back on January 19 looks like it may have been around for a while and trainers were warned.
Cheers Ben, so they've continued racing in Ireland despite one identified case of a vaccinated horse being affected
Though suppose the difference could be those cases were identified before other stable runners had the chance to come into contact with horses from other stables
the dealer 07 Feb 19 00:05
never heard of it last 40 years
did we not have a break during the foot and mouth out break ?
Yes, and it included Cheltenham, the year Istabraq would have been going for a fourth consecutive Champion Hurdle.
never heard of it last 40 years
did we not have a break during the foot and mouth out break ?
Yes, and it included Cheltenham, the year Istabraq would have been going for a fourth consecutive Champion Hurdle.
it happened before but they shut certain yards & wouldn't let their horses run for several weeks.
they didn't abandon meetings but maybe prudent for now until they get a better idea
they didn't abandon meetings but maybe prudent for now until they get a better idea
Coincidentally CXTV in Dubai have just shown the story of Istabraq culminating in his last ever run at Cheltenham. I had forgotten John McCririck's prophetic pre race comment that Paddy Power's offer of 8-1 about Istabraq not finishing the race might be the value bet.
CXTV will be at Meydan this afternoon.
CXTV will be at Meydan this afternoon.
Outbreaks are rare, but one such incident in Australia in 2007 brought racing to a halt nationwide on August 25 and, while the Melbourne spring carnival took place under strict bio-security measures, racing in Sydney did not resume until December 1 of that year.
British horse racing was plunged into a sudden crisis on Wednesday night as it emerged that three horses in an active yard, believed to be that of Donald McCain, have tested positive for equine influenza, despite having been vaccinated against it.
All four scheduled meetings in Britain on Thursday were summarily cancelled as the British Horseracing Authority moved hastily to try to contain the outbreak. It is not immediately clear when racing will be able to resume.
Alarmingly, the BHA confirmed that the affected stable had runners at Ayr and Ludlow on Wednesday, where they were in close proximity to dozens of other horses from many racing stables. McCain is the only trainer who had runners at both meetings, suggesting that his stable, in Cheshire, is the one referred to by the BHA. Other trainers who had runners at Ayr or Ludlow include Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson and Gordon Elliott, who sent runners to Ayr from his base in Ireland.
“It’s extremely worrying,” said Peter Scudamore, partner to Lucinda Russell, who had runners at Ayr. “I’ve never known anything like this in all my time in racing.”
An outbreak of the highly contagious respiratory disease caused turmoil in Australian racing in 2007, when all horse movements were banned nationwide for 72 hours, a ban that continued in some areas for longer. Sydney’s spring racing carnival was cancelled and it was months before the outbreak was contained and normal horse-related activities resumed.
Equine influenza is not usually fatal to healthy adult horses but is dangerous for young foals, mares in foal or horses who were already ill. BHA advice is that it can be transmitted by air “over reasonable distances”, or be passed from horse to horse by people who come into contact with them.
The BHA issued a statement shortly after 11pm, saying it had acted with the unanimous support of its industry veterinary committee, following confirmation of the positive tests by the Animal Health Trust.
“The fact that the cases have been identified in vaccinated horses presents a cause for significant concern over welfare,” it said.
“The full extent of potential exposure is unknown and we are working quickly to understand as much as we can to assist our decision making.”
A further statement is expected on Thursday.
The ruling body said it had been in touch with trainers who had runners at Ayr and Ludlow “to ensure appropriate quarantine and biosecurity measures are put in place and horse movements restricted to avoid possible further spread of the disease”.
Explaining the gravity of the situation, the BHA described equine flu as “the most potentially damaging of the respiratory viruses that occur in UK equines. Disease symptoms in non–immune animals include high fever, coughing and nasal discharge.
“The outbreak at the infected yard follows the identification of a number of equine influenza cases across Europe and the UK, including several in vaccinated horses. Following the recent outbreaks, guidance was sent to trainers to inform them that all horses which have not had a vaccination against equine influenza within the last six months should receive a booster vaccination, and that trainers should be extra-vigilant with biosecurity.”
All four scheduled meetings in Britain on Thursday were summarily cancelled as the British Horseracing Authority moved hastily to try to contain the outbreak. It is not immediately clear when racing will be able to resume.
Alarmingly, the BHA confirmed that the affected stable had runners at Ayr and Ludlow on Wednesday, where they were in close proximity to dozens of other horses from many racing stables. McCain is the only trainer who had runners at both meetings, suggesting that his stable, in Cheshire, is the one referred to by the BHA. Other trainers who had runners at Ayr or Ludlow include Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson and Gordon Elliott, who sent runners to Ayr from his base in Ireland.
“It’s extremely worrying,” said Peter Scudamore, partner to Lucinda Russell, who had runners at Ayr. “I’ve never known anything like this in all my time in racing.”
An outbreak of the highly contagious respiratory disease caused turmoil in Australian racing in 2007, when all horse movements were banned nationwide for 72 hours, a ban that continued in some areas for longer. Sydney’s spring racing carnival was cancelled and it was months before the outbreak was contained and normal horse-related activities resumed.
Equine influenza is not usually fatal to healthy adult horses but is dangerous for young foals, mares in foal or horses who were already ill. BHA advice is that it can be transmitted by air “over reasonable distances”, or be passed from horse to horse by people who come into contact with them.
The BHA issued a statement shortly after 11pm, saying it had acted with the unanimous support of its industry veterinary committee, following confirmation of the positive tests by the Animal Health Trust.
“The fact that the cases have been identified in vaccinated horses presents a cause for significant concern over welfare,” it said.
“The full extent of potential exposure is unknown and we are working quickly to understand as much as we can to assist our decision making.”
A further statement is expected on Thursday.
The ruling body said it had been in touch with trainers who had runners at Ayr and Ludlow “to ensure appropriate quarantine and biosecurity measures are put in place and horse movements restricted to avoid possible further spread of the disease”.
Explaining the gravity of the situation, the BHA described equine flu as “the most potentially damaging of the respiratory viruses that occur in UK equines. Disease symptoms in non–immune animals include high fever, coughing and nasal discharge.
“The outbreak at the infected yard follows the identification of a number of equine influenza cases across Europe and the UK, including several in vaccinated horses. Following the recent outbreaks, guidance was sent to trainers to inform them that all horses which have not had a vaccination against equine influenza within the last six months should receive a booster vaccination, and that trainers should be extra-vigilant with biosecurity.”
Outbreaks are rare, but one such incident in Australia in 2007 brought racing to a halt nationwide on August 25 and, while the Melbourne spring carnival took place under strict bio-security measures, racing in Sydney did not resume until December 1 of that year.
August-December.
August-December.
One day !
What a ludicrous committee style reaction.
Not a chance racing will be on this weekend , they are truly clueless.
What a ludicrous committee style reaction.
Not a chance racing will be on this weekend , they are truly clueless.
@sixtwosix
That of course is most likely you are correct. But their initial decision has to be to call off today's racing, evaluate and assess options. I suspect during today a plan will be put together and a possible time frame stated. That being done last night would have been considered knee jerk. There is no way it was only ever going to be one day, but to have announced anything different at that stage would not have been professional either.
That of course is most likely you are correct. But their initial decision has to be to call off today's racing, evaluate and assess options. I suspect during today a plan will be put together and a possible time frame stated. That being done last night would have been considered knee jerk. There is no way it was only ever going to be one day, but to have announced anything different at that stage would not have been professional either.
The Schweppes was always off back in the day due to bad weather , equine flu will be added to the list this year.
add to that the electric shocks in the parade ring sistwosix
yes, and max stake has been temporarily raised. portman park is getting extra meetings too.
Current vaccine WILL need to be investigated. No chance of racing in the near future.
Cheltenham festival surely doubtful now ?
What a great shame for all involved but as pointed out above welfare must come 1st.
I don't know much about the medical side of virus , but the amount of times I've seen adult's come straight from the loo without washing their hands is disgusting. I'd say almost 30% don't awful and shows they have no idea of hygiene risks or simply don't care.
What a great shame for all involved but as pointed out above welfare must come 1st.
I don't know much about the medical side of virus , but the amount of times I've seen adult's come straight from the loo without washing their hands is disgusting. I'd say almost 30% don't awful and shows they have no idea of hygiene risks or simply don't care.
katie63 07 Feb 19 09:01
when it happened in aus racing was off for months
Not comparable
when it happened in aus racing was off for months
Not comparable
the irish meeting goes ahead today and they have had runners in uk over the last few weeks so they dont seem too scared and they wouldnt have to be pushed much to make the uk look bad
Nobody is going to believe a username called "Facts" Im winding myself up now. must get out of these threads, its making me sad.
I saw bird in a hijab sneeze into a horses face a few days ago !
Feb 7, 2019 -- 9:35AM, Diff-rent wrote:
Cheltenham festival surely doubtful now ? What a great shame for all involved but as pointed out above welfare must come 1st.I don't know much about the medical side of virus , but the amount of times I've seen adult's come straight from the loo without washing their hands is disgusting. I'd say almost 30% don't awful and shows they have no idea of hygiene risks or simply don't care.
Good point but to no avail if you have to pull on a handle to leave the facility.
I always use a tissue or my coat cuff to touch handle !
Trident 07 Feb 19 09:21
domino heres the problem: The vaccine will need to be changed. Anyway im out of this forum for a while.
Trident 07 Feb 19 09:43
Nobody is going to believe a username called "Facts" Im winding myself up now. must get out of these threads, its making me sad.
Can we believe you this time ??
domino heres the problem: The vaccine will need to be changed. Anyway im out of this forum for a while.
Trident 07 Feb 19 09:43
Nobody is going to believe a username called "Facts" Im winding myself up now. must get out of these threads, its making me sad.
Can we believe you this time ??
an announcement will be made this evening regarding racing on friday and over the weekend.
I cant see there being any racing until Monday at the earliest
As Domino says on another thread, Wolves have called off Sat eve already
As Domino says on another thread, Wolves have called off Sat eve already
Even if racing was officially on this weekend, you'd have to think that many yards would give it a swerve now anyway
If they establish the vaccine McCain used was faulty,which is what seems to have happened in France,and they can establish which other trainers,if any,used it then it should be possible to re-start quite soon,though I agree tomrrow looks implausible.
Agree Salmon,
It wouldn't need to be the vaccine that is faulty, only the batch.
The three horses that have shown signs of the flu ARE from the same batch according to their passports, which is why that batch of vaccine is being tested and this is the main focus point of investigation at this stage.
It wouldn't need to be the vaccine that is faulty, only the batch.
The three horses that have shown signs of the flu ARE from the same batch according to their passports, which is why that batch of vaccine is being tested and this is the main focus point of investigation at this stage.
Is it a dodgy vaccine or a strain that has mutated?
James Given, vet and trainer:
A virus is a shifty beggar and subtly mutates and changes so antibodies in the body have to adapt. Using the analogy of a key and a lock with antibodies being the key and the virus the lock: if the key is quite similar to the lock then it will work, but if not it won't, so it is likely the virus has mutated. Vaccines are made up of previous strains of the virus. Initially a course of vaccination is two to three weeks, then again at six months, then annually.
James Given, vet and trainer:
A virus is a shifty beggar and subtly mutates and changes so antibodies in the body have to adapt. Using the analogy of a key and a lock with antibodies being the key and the virus the lock: if the key is quite similar to the lock then it will work, but if not it won't, so it is likely the virus has mutated. Vaccines are made up of previous strains of the virus. Initially a course of vaccination is two to three weeks, then again at six months, then annually.
Viruses are constantly mutating so it is surely likely that the vaccine was not faulty but it has just become ineffective against this slightly different strain. Viruses are clever little b#ggers, vaccines have to very specific to the strain they are defending and very small changes in the virus can render them useless. That is why the annual flu jabs for humans are only moderately effective.
The one good thing about viruses is that they are not often deadly as it is not in their interest to kill their host!
The one good thing about viruses is that they are not often deadly as it is not in their interest to kill their host!
Vaccines have no intelligence so are not clever....it is all down to reproducing themselves very quickly and mutating....it's a numbers game !
If it's anything like human flu then not only do the viruses (virii? ) mutate but there are several around at any given time. The human flu vaccine is based on informed guesswork that is often very nearly right but can sometimes result in vaccinated people only being protected against a minority of possible strains. This year they developed a separate vaccine for the over-65s which doesn't include protection against one strain because it was feared the vaccine itself could cause fatalities amongst the frail.
Having said that I THINK the French are saying that certain trainers got a batch of the vaccine which was faulty,not that the vaccine itself is ineffective. I imagine they are trying to establish if this is what happened with McCain's horses. If it did and other trainers have used batches which are OK then their horses should still be protected even if in contact with infected horses I would presume. The problem is that if it is the vaccine itself which is faulty and not just the a particular batch or two then it is going to spread rather quickly.
Having said that I THINK the French are saying that certain trainers got a batch of the vaccine which was faulty,not that the vaccine itself is ineffective. I imagine they are trying to establish if this is what happened with McCain's horses. If it did and other trainers have used batches which are OK then their horses should still be protected even if in contact with infected horses I would presume. The problem is that if it is the vaccine itself which is faulty and not just the a particular batch or two then it is going to spread rather quickly.
Possible SS, but not every Vet uses the same Vaccine and their are over 100 out there on the market that vets use. So just because the one McCain's vets use could be faulty it could be no other vet practice uses that vaccine and therefore no other trainer would be affected.
You are of course right The Leopard, they are not intrinsically clever but it is their cycle of existence that allows them to be able to keep reinfecting.
Clever is not the right word but one has to sort of admire the ingenuity of it all.
Clever is not the right word but one has to sort of admire the ingenuity of it all.
That's more or less what I was trying to say dom. If it can be established McCain used a faulty batch (unknowingly)then there probably isn't a major problem. If he didn't it gets a lot worse.
Depends SS.
Even if the vaccine he uses (not the batch) doesn't work anymore, it doesn't mean other vaccines wont. There are over 100 equine flu vaccinations on the market, different vets use different ones. The vets who handle McCains yard will use a different vaccine to most other vets, and that is the way it is throughout the equine industry. Even if the vaccine that vet used was faulty and no longer suitable, it wouldn't mean it would affect other horses using different vaccines.
Even if the vaccine he uses (not the batch) doesn't work anymore, it doesn't mean other vaccines wont. There are over 100 equine flu vaccinations on the market, different vets use different ones. The vets who handle McCains yard will use a different vaccine to most other vets, and that is the way it is throughout the equine industry. Even if the vaccine that vet used was faulty and no longer suitable, it wouldn't mean it would affect other horses using different vaccines.
And why not visors that the police horses wear but tinted so they don't have to omit races with low sun?
I have always thought they could put up a shade on two poles just after a fence.....wouldn't take much effort !
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