Vic: Olympic equestrian bosses monitor equine flu crisis=2

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2007
Vic: Olympic equestrian bosses monitor equine flu crisis=2

"There are a whole lot of competitors at Warwick, but whether it will affect them coming
home, I'm not too sure at present."

The flu outbreak had not immediately impacted on any training or preparations for the
Beijing Olympics, but Mr Roycroft said it was unclear how the crisis would affect a major
three-day qualifying event at the Horsley Park Olympic competition site in Sydney next
month, or at a four-star event in Adelaide in November.

"We are looking at the next major event at Horsley Park as one of our qualifying events
for the Olympics," Mr Roycroft said.

"I would hope the authorities will have things organised and cleaned up by then.

"The Adelaide event is the only four-star competition event in the southern hemisphere
and also is a very important event for our qualifying."

Mr Roycroft said Australia had previously enjoyed its status as one of the cleanest
countries with some of the toughest quarantine measures in the world.

But he said it was doubtful the government's Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service
(AQIS) could successfully trace the source of the virus.

"If (the virus) spreads further, you would have to assume we are no longer free of
the equine flu virus," he said.

"The authorities are doing exactly the right things at the moment but they will need
to narrow down how the breach occurred.

"It may be that they can only guess how or where it started."

AAP sjm/evt/bwl

KEYWORD: STALLIONS OLY08 2 MELBOURNE

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