Equestrian Australia Hendra By-Law
Equestrian Australia (EA) has a responsibility to its members, horses, event organising committees and venues to take reasonable steps to protect equine and human health. It is with this in mind that the EA national board has adopted a new by-law outlining the Hendra vaccination requirements for horses which attend EA and FEI sanctioned events in Australia.
The EA Hendra Vaccination By-Law comes into effect from Tuesday 1 July, however implementation will occur from 1 October 2014 to allow event organisers and owners/riders an opportunity to comply with the by-law’s requirements. There is also an additional one month grace period for any event taking place during the month of October which already has its schedule published.
The by-law makes it a requirement for organising committees of EA and FEI events to complete a questionnaire during initial planning stages to determine if their event requires classification as a Hendra Vaccinated Event (HVE).
Known as the Equestrian Competition Hendra Biosecurity Checklist (download below) the assessment requires event organisers to answer a series of multiple choice questions about the location and duration of the event, the number of horses in attendance, how the horses will be stabled and the impact on the facilities should a Hendra outbreak occur. If the result of the checklist is equal to 50 or above then event organisers will need to classify their event as a HVE.
There will be one checklist used by all event organisers regardless of the state in which their event is held however the location of the event will determine if all or only some of the attending horses require vaccination.
The by-law divides the country into two regions – endemic and non-endemic – with different requirements for each.
Events graded as a HVE within the states of New South Wales and Queensland, which the by-law defines as the endemic region, will require allattending horses to be Hendra Vaccinated. To view the known hendra areas by council click here
Events that carry a HVE classification within the states of Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the territories of NT and ACT, which the by-law defines as the non-endemic region, will only require horses travelling from the endemic region (NSW and QLD) to be Hendra vaccinated.
For futher information please see the frequently asked questions below:
Hendra FAQs_Event Organisers.pdf
To download the full policy click here
Equestrian Competition Hendra Biosecurity Checklist 2014.07.01-2.xlsx
Newsletter
