The Food and Veterinary Authority in Iceland (MAST) has decided to lift the formal home quarantine on horses intended for export as of January 1, as there haven’t been many reports of horse flu infections lately.
Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
However, the decision is made with the disclaimer that the disease doesn’t start spreading again, visir.is reports.
Horse export has been successful this autumn and early winter with almost 1,000 animals being sold to foreign buyers by the beginning of December, according to information from MAST.
The European Union members states demand that imported horses are free of all disease symptoms and the same applies to all horses they have been in contact with in the 30 days preceding export—in the US the demand is 60 days.
Due to infectious coughing, it was necessary to apply temporary regulations on home quarantine on horses intended for export to fulfill the aforementioned conditions.
The arrangement has been successful and there have been no reports of the horse flu surfacing in horses that have been exported. Very few horses haven’t been green-lighted after medical examination; in such cases export was postponed.
It will continue to be the responsibility of sellers to make sure that the horses they export haven’t come in contact with horses that show symptoms of the horse flu for at least one month before they are sent out of the country.
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