As the battle on mainland Australia continues against the continuing spread of EI, the small island of Tasmania thought they were relatively safe as the Bass Strait seperates them from the mainland - but the news late today suggests this is not the case.

The following announcement appeared on the Equestrian Federation of Australia - Tasmania website:

Tasmania – Immediate Standstill of all Horses
Due to a highly suspect case of a horse showing symptoms of Equine Influenza, the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water has ordered the immediate standstill of all horses in Tasmania as of 5pm Thursday 11 October 2007.

In addition, all horse events and gatherings are to be cancelled this week and weekend.

The DPIW is awaiting the results of further confirmatory tests in the coming days.

This advice has been received from Dr Rod Andrewarthur – Tasmania’s Chief Veterinarian.

For more information, check the DPIW web site on Friday morning.

This news has shocked the Tasmanian equestrian fraternity and brought shudders to Victorians who sit and wait for their turn in this crisis.

The Spring Racing Carnival has the go ahead for Victorian Racing and this includes one of the most famous races in the world, the Melbourne Cup and this is causing great angst amongst the non-racing industry who are feeling that they are being treated as second class citizens in this situation.

There is a great deal of rumour and gossip currently circulating regarding supposed "hidden cases" of EI in Victoria but there is no solid foundation for any of these stories and the only result of them is sheer panic by many who have much loved children's ponies and old horses who have been faithful companions.

As many equestrian businesses face huge financial losses and many people lose their jobs as the equestrian businesses cannot support their employment, there are many suggesting that if EI does reach Victoria that there will be "blood on the streets".

This is a sad state of affairs and there can be no doubt that entire disaster has been mishandled somewhere along the way..........but rather than pointing fingers and hurling abuse people need to focus at this tough time on their horses well being and ways to get the industry back and running once this crisis is cleared.

The government enquiry into how this disease escaped into the community will have to be left to work out the answers to this. In the meantime plans need to urgently be implemented by organisations such as the Equestrian federation to find a way of registering all non-racing horses to ensure that if this were to be a replay, there would be a strong and powerful lobby backe dup by factual figures on the non-racing industry - horse numbers, people employed, numbers of businesses etc.

This would be a useful way to use the time right now!