Journal article
A case-control study of risk factors for equine influenza spread onto horse premises during the 2007 epidemic in Australia
SM Firestone, KA Schemann, JALML Toribio, MP Ward, NK Dhand
Preventive Veterinary Medicine | Published : 2011
Abstract
The 2007 epidemic of equine influenza in Australia provided an opportunity to investigate the effectiveness of on-farm biosecurity measures in preventing the spread of a novel pathogen in a largely naive population. We conducted a case-control study of 200 horse premises from highly affected regions of the state of New South Wales (NSW), to investigate risk factors for the spread of equine influenza onto horse premises, specifically, non-compliance with biosecurity measures recommended to horse owners by the relevant animal health authority, the NSW Department of Primary Industries. The study was restricted to cases occurring during the first seven weeks of the epidemic, a period prior to va..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This research was jointly funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) and the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases (ABCRC). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the time and cooperation of the horse premises owners and managers interviewed, the NSW DPI for making the equine influenza dataset available, and the following individuals for contributions to data compilation and comments on study design: Brendan Cowled, Barbara Moloney, Nina Kung, Evan Sergeant, Nigel Perkins and David Taylor (LPMA).