Notes of the ‘UK Equine Disease Coalition’ meeting Friday 25th October 2013 Room 632, Linen Hall, 162 Regent Street, London W1B 4JN
Attendance: Richard Newton (AHT) Dagmar Droogsma (Defra) – until 10.30am Andrew Voas (Scottish Government) Roly Owers (World Horse Welfare) Ben Mayes (BEVA) James Yeates (RSPCA) Keith Meldrum (World Horse Welfare)
Apologies: Richard Hopley (Defra), Emily Kearns (Scottish Government), James Wood (Cambridge University), Alick Simmons (Defra), Balazs Toth (AHVLA), Paul Jepson (Horse Trust)
1. RO welcomed everyone, noting the unfortunate number of apologies. DD introduced herself as the (relatively new) Deputy Director of Animal Health Policy and Implementation at Defra, having replaced Rory O’Donnell over the summer. Her responsibility covered exotic disease and animal movements for all species, having previously been in a role involving strategic policy thinking.
2. Notes on the previous meeting – Thu 9 May – were agreed as an accurate record.
3. Matters arising not covered elsewhere on the agenda. a. Infectious Diseases of Horses Order 1987. No change with Defra thinking here. DD took the opportunity to update the group on progress with Defra’s ‘Red Tape Challenge’ – a project to review all current legislation to assess whether there are non-regulatory options; options to reform, simplify or merge current legislation; options for improving enforcement; and/or options to remove some legislation altogether.
The only equine health related legislation that is in the ‘firing line’ is the removal of EVA and CEM as notifiable diseases. The timeline from here is that there is a meeting of Defra officials with the Cabinet Office on 5 Nov and then a meeting at Ministerial level at the end of November. If EVA and CEM are still on the risk list after this, then there will be a wider consultation (including with the sector) before firm proposals are decided on next April/May time.
It would appear that there is no Defra ‘champion’ to maintain EVA/CEM as notifiable diseases. BM said that we should not be focusing on the health/welfare implications of denotification – but on the significant trade implications. RN agreed and highlighted the significant work/lobbying that the TBA had done previously on this issue. DD noted that the UK was one of the only countries with this regulation – and hence any justification for maintaining these diseases needed to explain how trade was carried out between other major trading nations. AV said that this review was an England only review and hence the devolved administrations might take a different view.
Rather than wait for any consultation, it was felt that it would be sensible to write to Oliver Letwin (as Minister of State for the Cabinet Office), copied to Owen Patterson, to register (again) the sector’s grave concerns with regards to the implications of CEM and EVA becoming non-notifiable. RN suggested we contact the TBA to coordinate writing a short, punchy letter to the Minister focusing on the trade implications and the considerable risk to exchequer income if/when there is a considerable dent in the size of live export of equines from the UK. RO/RN to action. b. Equine Trading Schemes. BM said he was trying to establish a horse sport dealers group either separately or through BETA with the aim of establishing a dealer’s Code of Practice. Immediate target is to establish some terms of reference over the winter. c. On-line photographic/video resource for notifiable diseases – c/f – action remains with World Horse Welfare and BEVA. d. Attendance at Exercise Walnut – Andrew Harrison (BEVA President elect) attended on behalf of the equine sector. Valuable exercise – the next probable exercise is tier 1 FMD exercise in 2015 – although the general election might affect this timing.
KM raised concern around the level of import checks being carried out in the current economic climate and how intelligence being provided to the AHVLA did not appear to being acted upon. DD suggested involving RH in at the next meeting with AHVLA on this issue. e. Public profile of the Equine Disease Coalition – notes of the coalition meeting continue to be uploaded to the web (www.worldhorsewelfare.org/disease-coalition) – the tagging of this page had also improved its ranking on search results. RN queried whether it was planned to include latest news stories on this weblink – RO said this was a possibility but resource dependent. f. FEEVA Working Group on disease surveillance – BM reported that the consultation was on- going.
4. Terms of Reference (ToR) a. Organogram for key groupings within the equine sector – latest draft was reviewed. The role/status of the communications group was queried – and where the media fitted into the overview. RO asked all to feedback comments to him for onward transmission to Jan Rogers at the BEF (or direct to Jan).
5. General Disease update a. Defra review of notifiable diseases – and compensation review. Former issue – covered above under 3a. Compensation review – DD said that the AHWBE principles of compensation have been agreed – DD will circulate. A request was now being put to the Secretary of State to carry out a comprehensive review – a task that will take some time. KM reminded the group that the review would not cover the significant issues of carcase disposal and disinfection. b. The Specified Diseases (Notification and Slaughter) Order in Scotland – covering EIA, Glanders and Dourine. AV said that Scottish Government are currently working on proposed legislation they hope to introduce early in 2014. The compensation level would be set at £1 for each animal slaughtered. . c. Equine Infectious Anaemia. DD said that progress on developing a policy paper had been delayed, given RH’s transfer to another department for the past couple of months. d. Contagious Equine Metritis. See 3a above. e. Equine Influenza. Discussion focused on the current EMA consultation on the compliance of authorized equine influenza vaccines with OIE requirements. The deadline for this consultation is 31 Oct – although it is unclear how well this consultation has been promoted. RN raised two queries/issues: i. Whether the proposal is to fast track approval for updated EI vaccines in compliance with OIE requirements – given that the EI Expert Surveillance Panel was established to mirror the human group. ii. Whether the small scale challenge studies to establish whether a current vaccine has protection against a new virus could be extrapolated up to population level BM had previously circulated the draft FVE submission; RN felt that this could be improved. RN agreed to raise with this issue with the relevant team at the AHT and would circulate a draft response for the group to consider. Also JY agreed to ensure that Eurogroup were aware of this consultation. f. Strangles. The update on the SAC/BHS Scotland scheme from EK was discussed – noting the low compliance of the scheme to date. It was agreed that the key message is that there is no cheap way to manage strangles. The latest strangles initiative from Redwings (‘Speak out about strangles’ – see http://www.redwings.org.uk/welfare-horse-care-advice- strangles.php), focused on yard managers, was also discussed. No-one had been aware of this development and JY agreed to speak to Nic de Brauwere about how best to coordinate this type of initiative in the future. g. Equine herpes. RN noted that the situation had quietened down recently – having been a busy spring/summer – especially with the latest Devon stud farm outbreak. h. Piroplasmosis. Given that the only monitoring is through pre-export testing it is quite possible that the protozoan parasite is in circulation – only wider surveillance would establish the real situation. i. Other. Equine Grass sickness – following completion of the pilot vaccine project, RN said that the aim was to carry out a wider vaccine trial. With regards to atypical myopathy, there seems to be a strong link to toxins from the seeds of sycamore trees.
6. Update from related groups/initiatives a. Animal Health and Welfare Board for England (AHWBE) – DD said that the Board’s performance review was on-going through an external consultancy. JY noted that he had taken part in an initial interview and was attending a workshop on 6 Nov. b. Defra Sector Council – nothing to report. c. Equine Sector Council for Health and Welfare – RO noted that the key issues this year for the steering group had focused on equine identification (in the wake of the horsemeat scandal) and the growing problem of fly grazing. d. Defra Exotic Disease Core Group. DD said that a paper is being put forward to the November meeting of the AHWBE posing questions on the criteria for core groups. e. Equine Establishments Working Group. BM said that there had been little progress with regards to licensing – although AV said that an options paper on licensing of equine establishments in Scotland was being put forward to the Cabinet Secretary in the near future. It was noted that the proposed EU Animal Health Regulation may require registration (as distinct from licensing) of equine establishments. AV also said that it was likely that the Scottish Government would take a similar view to Defra on moving away from statutory Codes of Practice on animal welfare to more flexible recommendations or industry codes which could still be used to establish good practice in case of legal proceedings.
BM outlined his thinking with regards to establishing a voluntary equine establishments’ code – in the form of a checklist covering non-biosecurity issues – to work in tandem with Yard Health checklist. His plan was to raise this at the next meeting of the working group. KM supported this suggestion. f. AHT Equine Industry Committee (EIC). RO said that the status of this committee, along with the Defra Exotic Disease Core Group and the Equine Disease Coalition had been raised by others – in relation to whether any rationalisation could be achieved. RN said that the central aim of the EIC was very different to the Disease Coalition – in that the former was effectively a research conduit from AHT teams with a European attendance (inc. France, Germany, Italy and Ireland). With regards to BT’s query from the last meeting about attendance of official vets from other MSs, RN suggested speaking to Sidney Ricketts. 7. Biosecurity – Equine Health checklist a. Promotional plan update. RO noted that World Horse Welfare had funded the inclusion of the checklist as a centre page spread in the 19 Sep edition of Horse & Hound. b. BEF proposal to bring the checklist to ‘life’ was discussed. BM noted that he had given a PowerPoint presentation recently on biosecurity to owners – and that this was a better way of promulgating the checklist. It could also be promoted at equine exhibitions using posters. BM agreed to circulate this PP presentation and RO to feedback to Jan Rogers. c. World Horse Welfare disease pack – RO said that the text of the current pack was being updated. BM noted that the biggest two endemic disease issues were ringworm and strangles.
8. EU Animal Health Regulation. DD said that Pamela Thompson would be now devoting more time to the development of this regulation, given the complexity of the related issues involved. Jan Rogers at the BEF is the lead for the equine sector but no meeting of her group had taken place since the proposal was published. RO to ask Jan for an update.
9. Proposed disease control protocols for equine charities. JY outlined his discussions with Nic de Brauwere from Redwings – the thinking was to provide more specific advice to equine charities with regards to infectious disease – following on from the checklist. It was generally felt that for prevention this should be possible but the challenge with outbreak management is that every case is different. However templates for each disease could be developed and uploaded onto an on-line repository. JY to discuss further with Nic de B and decide on next steps.
10. Tripartite Agreement. RO outlined the latest progress on the renegotiation of the current agreement – with the three signatory CVOs due to meet on 20 Nov to sign the amended agreement – which is due to become effective in early 2014. The challenges of demonstrating ‘high health status’ for horses moving internationally was discussed.
11. Equine identification – passports and central equine database. DD outlined latest progress – with the original timeline having been deferred due to issues from Member States (including Defra). Defra are very keen that there is enough scope within the revised regulation to allow rationalisation to take place within the UK. Negotiations are on-going.
12. AOB a. The 5th International meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance – Austria – 31 Oct-3 Nov 14 – the group was aware of this meeting but did not feel it was highly relevant to the equine sector. b. Defra Animal Disease Contingency Plan Workshop – RO said that he had been invited to attend this workshop, which was a more comprehensive approach to the annual review of the contingency plan. It was agreed that it would useful to attend – RO to circulate date options to KM if he cannot attend. c. Defra workshop on ‘Transforming our use of the Veterinary Economic Attendance’ – RO said that he had been invited to attend this workshop on 13 Nov given the work of the Disease Coalition – he is unable to make the date and KM is attending instead. d. Scottish ‘Equine Stakeholders’ meeting – BM queried whether there would be a follow-on to this July’s meeting – AV said that there is likely to be another meeting in 2014 once the outcome of the options paper to the Cabinet Secretary re licensing of equine establishments had been produced. e. FVO report on AHS outbreak in the surveillance and protection zones near Cape Town earlier this year (previously circulated by RO) – KM said that he had been appalled by the content – RN agreed. It was not clear when the ‘two year’ monitoring period would start – a disease free period within the surveillance zone that is required before resumption of exports to the EU are even considered. KM felt that this period should not even start until another FVO audit had been completed, that showed all of the deficits identified in the current report have been rectified. It was agreed that it would be sensible to write to the UK CVO highlighting the group’s concerns – RO/KM to action.
13. Date of next meeting – Friday 7th February 2014 – London.