Neigh

The majority of the horse owners in the UK vaccinate their horses against flu because they have to rather than because they feel it is necessary. They have to because almost everything that involves bringing horses together also involves operating under the "Jockey Club Rules" which state that horses should be vaccinated annually (as opposed to the FEI who say every 6 months, and there are some good reasons for the difference but too complicated to go into here).

So the situation in Australia should be an eye opener. With 944 infected premises (and by the time you read this it will be more because the numbers are going up very rapidly, 100 premises in the last 24 hours) this is proving devastating for the industry. Where they are lucky is that they seem to have a mild form of the virus, if they had one of the virulent ones then there would be a lot more deaths. But what it shows is that, no matter how good your biosecurity, disease can get in. Until this outbreak Australia was one of only two countries to never have had equine flu.