Horse owners, trainers and service providers were reminded of the importance of effective biosecurity to minimize the spread of infectious diseases at the launch of a horse biosecurity package as part of an industry breakfast at Ascot today.
Department of Agriculture and Food Director General Rob Delane presented Horse Alert WA to the State’s horse industry organisations, which have worked with the department to produce best practice biosecurity guidelines for Western Australia.
“The biosecurity guidelines in this manual will help industry to minimize the spread of an infectious disease or an emergency disease and thereby reduce its damaging impacts, or even prevent the introduction of a disease,” Mr Delane said.
“The current outbreaks of Hendra virus in Queensland and NSW have reminded all horse industry members of the impacts of emergency horse diseases and of the importance in implementing effective biosecurity measures.
“These guidelines will assist industry to adopt best practice principles to improve the overall standard of horse health and infection control on individual properties and within stables.
“I congratulate Racing and Wagering Western Australia, Equestrian Western Australia and the WA Horse Council for their active development of these guidelines.”
The development of these guidelines will also assist industry to meet their obligations under the Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement (EADRA) signed in March this year.
Copies of the package have been mailed to WA horse organisation members. Additional copies are available from the department and WA horse organisations or electronically at www.agric.wa.gov.au