Notes of the UK Equine Disease Coalition Meeting s2

Notes of the ‘UK Equine Disease Coalition’ meeting Monday 7th November 2016 Room 632, Linen Hall, 162 Regent Street, London W1B 4JN

Attendance: Mark Bowen (BEVA) Keith Meldrum (World Horse Welfare) Richard Hopley (Defra) Roly Owers (World Horse Welfare) Richard Newton (AHT) Balazs Toth (APHA) Ben Mayes (FEEVA)

Apologies: Scottish Government representation, Josh Slater (RVC), Fin Twomey (APHA), James Wood (Cambridge University), James Yeates (RSPCA)

1. RO welcomed everyone, noting apologies from JS, FT, AV, JW and JY.

2. Notes on the previous meeting – Fri 13 May – were agreed as an accurate record.

3. Matters arising not covered elsewhere on the agenda. a. Racing Right. MB updated on the current proposal to replace the Veterinary Advisory Committee (VAC) of the HBLB with a Thoroughbred Research Council. Discussions are ongoing within the racing Tripartite Group. Celia Marr is the current VAC Chair but is being replaced by Sandy Love at the end of the year. b. Slaughter Compensation review. KM said that the finalised equine paper had been submitted to Defra in September and had been copied to Coalition members. In reality the review is probably on hold in the wake of the referendum but RH felt it was a good to have submitted this feedback from the equine sector. c. Membership of the group: i. RH said that he was changing roles within Defra (to a new CAP role) as was FT (to a zoonoses role) but it was agreed that Defra policy and APHA should retain 2 seats on the group. RH to provide update once replacements known ii. RO updated group on discussions with KM re succession planning and they suggested that Liz Kelly (recently ex-Defra) should join the Coalition, which was agreed iii. BM felt that his association should be through FEEVA but was happy to continue and MB noted he would be coming off BEVA Council next year but would also be happy to continue following consultation with BEVA iv. RO had been in contact with JW who felt that he needed to step down from the group due to work commitments v. It was suggested that it might be useful to invite someone from VMD to join the Coalition. RO to follow up with Noemi Garcia del Blanco at the VMD vi. Future membership of the group would be considered again once the previous actions had been completed d. Equine Identification Commission Regulation 2015/262. KM provided an update, including on the Central Equine Database and the Scottish consultation. Terry Gurnhill is providing temporary cover during Andrew Bishop’s absence from the Defra ID team. Defra intend to consult on their implementing regulations in the New Year. BM commented that there could be some public resistance to these regulations post Brexit on the basis that they were unnecessary. BM also noted that some EU countries that had implemented the regulation were having real issues with the interpretation for foals in that foals without passports were not able to be treated. KM also said that the FSA were requiring all equine slaughterhouses to comply with the European regulation and this could interfere with the slaughter of semi- wild ponies from our moors. e. CEM control proposal. KM said that this was continuing to make good progress with the plan to use a sub-list, to be held by BEVA, of the current OCQ (V) list of OVs for vets that will be able to carry out investigations and treatment of CEM cases. OVs will be required to certify that the management of the breeding on an infected premises is taking place in accordance with the provisions of the HBLB Code of Practice. All agreed with the proposals described and suggested that it was essential to create a simple low/no-cost process. MB highlighted that some OVs are not keen to renew their authorisation because they need to cover all ungulates – this is being considered actively by APHA. BEVA are in the short-term taking over the HBLB lab assessment scheme. RH said that the new Minister (Lord Gardiner) has a keen interest in equines and in the CEM transfer of responsibilities proposal. f. EU Animal Health Regulation. KM provided an update on the recent Core Group meeting and that the equine sector had provided feedback on the sector’s priorities. The next step is the drafting of the implementing regulations that is going to require significant input from the sector. KM highlighted the concerns regarding staffing challenges at Defra and that the sector had recommended that Defra consider use of staff to attend meetings in Brussels from the Devolved Administrations or experts from the sector.

4. Terms of Reference. It was agreed that the current terms cover off all the key Brexit issues but this will be kept under consideration. RO noted that the Equine Sector Council are in the process of updating the 2015 General Election manifesto following on from the ‘new’ government following the referendum and the appointment of a very supportive Minister.

5. African Horse Sickness – 3 Nov meeting. RN provided an overview of the meeting and the keynote presentations from Javier Castillo-Olivares from Pirbright (on vaccine development) and the RVC group undertaking the FEI/IFHA funded project through the OIE (involving 3 streams including an economic assessment for new vaccine development). The meeting was well organised and attended and generated some interesting discussions that focused on developing ongoing dialogue with 5 key stakeholders: a. South African government – RH was to discuss next steps with the CVO in the next few days bearing in mind that there is a meeting of International Breeders in the RSA in January– RH to update. b. Pharmaceutical companies – Merial are probably in the lead position here – RN to discuss with Javier C-O. c. DfID – RO to talk to the Brooke on the best approach to take – RO to update. d. Other EU Member States – RO said that Göran Akerström (FEI Veterinary Director) had agreed to raise this through National Federations in Europe. e. OIE – RH to discuss with the CVO what is the best approach to take.

6. Defra Biosecurity summit (25 Oct). RN/MB/KM had been in attendance – the meeting had agreed that the key simple messages were vaccinate, isolate, monitor and hygiene, which had significant relevance to the equine health checklist. There had been an excellent presentation from a social scientist who highlighted that for messages to create behaviour change they needed to follow the EAST acronym – Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely. It was agreed that the checklist could be reviewed on this basis. RH suggested inviting someone from the Insights & Behavioural Unit at the Cabinet Office to the next meeting – RH to action. The meeting had also questioned whether vets in practice were doing enough and the Coalition suggested that this could be raised with BEVA’s Practice Standards Committee – MB to action. 7. Availability of equine medicines. MB outlined the recent risk assessment carried out by the French Government that had concluded that the risk to the (horsemeat) consumer is considered ‘acceptable’ 6 months after an animal has been treated with phenylbutazone (and certain other medications). FEEVA had since developed a position statement urging the European Commission to include these drugs in the list of substances providing clinical benefit as well as to the list of essential substances for the treatment of horses. KM said that this was a very interesting development given that the Commission would need to act now that a precedent had been set with a decision that allows horsemeat to be imported from Canada derived from animals where a 6-month medication withdrawal period had been met. RO said that World Horse Welfare had real welfare concerns with a 6-month withdrawal period but supported the principle that a system should be devised that permitted animals to re-enter the food chain even where they had been ‘signed out’ subject to appropriate targeted residue carcase testing. This is an ongoing issue for FEEVA and World Horse Welfare and will remain as an agenda item for the next meeting.

8. Disease update a. Equine Herpes Virus. RN noted that this continues to be a significant issue with an EHV-1 neurological incident ongoing in Bedfordshire. b. Strangles. BM said that a Scottish Government/BHS Scotland Biosecurity Summit was taking place on 7 Nov with a key driver for this being the continued challenge that Strangles is posing in many parts of Scotland. c. BM raised concerns that many horses ‘imported’ from Ireland by dealers were clinically affected with disease when unloaded, the affected animals being returned to Ireland in the same vehicle. This underlined the importance of targeted portal inspections.

9. Update from related groups/initiatives a. Animal Health and Welfare Board for England – no update. b. Equine Stakeholder Group for Scotland – no update outside 8b above. c. Equine Sector Council for Health and Welfare – RO noted that the discussions with the BHIC as to the possibility of closer collaboration and/or merger were still ongoing. d. Defra Exotic Disease Core Group – RH confirmed that there had been no change here. e. Equine Establishments Working Party – a meeting in Scotland had been proposed by BHS Scotland to address the Strangles problem in the Highlands. f. AHT Equine Industry Committee. RN noted that the availability of EHV vaccine availability remains an issue.

10. AOB a. KM had attended an EPIC meeting in Scotland organised by Lisa Boden on the future of animal health disease surveillance over the next 15 years – the meeting spent time considering the implications of Brexit and focused on data availability and collection. It had been an interesting meeting and notes will be circulated once available. b. MB raised the issue of Antimicrobial Resistance – and the perception within the equine veterinary profession that this is a political rather than a clinical issue. It was noted that a Liverpool research group were looking at clinical cases of AMR and suggested that a representative from this group present to a future meeting of the Coalition – RN to follow up.

11. Date of next meeting – Wed 10 May – 9.30am.