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the cattle tick Boophilus micro p l u s found in Qu e e n s l a n dand No rthern NSW - and the dog tick Rhipicephalus san -g u i n e u s found in coastal Australia - have been considere dpotential vectors,” she said. The AQIS proposal to allowthe importation of serologically positive horses would besubject to risk management measures including:• accurately determining the piroplasmosis status of

horses to be import e d ;• p re venting the importation of exotic ticks;• p re venting ticks already present in Australia fro m

attaching to horses that test positive for the disease;a n d

• p re venting the spread of the disease resulting fro mm e d i c a l / ve t e r i n a ry intervention such as reuse ofsyringes and needles.

“The re v i ew has not been restricted to horses competingin the Sydney Olympics, but for competition, exhibitionand racing purposes generally,” said Dr Ma rtin. “It will,h owe ve r, have particular importance for the Sydney 2000Games because several elite competition horses that maybe eligible to compete are serologically positive.” The lasttime Australia hosted the Olympic Games, in 1956,equestrian events we re held in Stockholm because of Au s-t r a l i a’s concerns about infectious animal diseases enteringAustralia. “Fo rty years ago the situation was quite differ-ent. Australia imported horses from ve ry few countriesand the long sea voyage was not conducive for maintain-ing peak fitness for competition horses,” Dr Ma rtin said.“With air travel and changes in quarantine conditionsover time we now import horses from many countries,including all the EU countries, No rth America and seve r-al Asian countries. Most of the horses that will be com-peting in the Sydney 2000 Games are resident in No rt hAmerican or Eu rope, so it will be ve ry much business asusual. Pi roplasmosis was introduced into Australia in the1950s,1960s and 1970s with imported horses but did notestablish. The infection was spread in the 1970s in a smallg roup of polocrosse ponies by the use of contaminatedneedles and syringes. The disease is, howe ve r, distributedquite widely throughout the world. In South Africa, forexample, a large percentage of the horse population iss e ro p o s i t i ve to piroplasmosis.” All horses imported for theGames and other competitions will be tested offshore forthe presence of serological antibodies using an indire c tf l u o rescent antibody test, treated with an acaricide andinspected for ticks before export. As a quarantine stationfor imported Olympic horses, the Sydney In t e r n a t i o n a lEquestrian Centre (SIEC) at Horsley Pa rk will be of cen-tral importance for AQIS during the Games. Horses willa r r i ve from nominated hubs in Eu rope and No rth Amer-ica and will be imported under current quarantinere q u i rements for the temporary importation of horses.Once they arrive in Syd n e y, they will undergo 14 days ofpost arrival quarantine at a self-contained, purpose builtcompetition facility at the SIEC. The SIEC has full train-

ing facilities, so the horses will be able to continue totrain while they are in quarantine.AQIS will have a full time presence at the SIEC duringthe quarantine phase. The horses will remain under quar-antine surveillance during and after the Olympic compe-tition until they are exported and will be joined by Au s-tralian horses and those imported earlier to acclimatisejust before the Games begin. Tick surveys we re conduct-ed at the SIEC site in Ma rch 1997 and Se p t e m b e r / Oc t o-ber 1998, but no ticks we re found. T h roughout the quar-antine period and the Games Quarantine Inspectors, theQuarantine Manager and grooms will regularly examineall horses.

Bluetongue spreading from B u l g a ri aA serious recent outbreak of Bluetongue has been sourc e dto Bulgaria. It has already spread to bordering areas ofTu rkey and authorities are now closely monitoring sheepflocks across that country to determine whether it iss p reading furt h e r. The disease agent was thought to havee n t e red Tu rkey through an influx of Culicoides (Bi t i n gmidges), carried by strong southerly winds in mid-Ju n e .Bluetongue virus was isolated in Bulgarian sheep in Ju l yand subsequently found the next month in Tu rkish sheepre a red on pastures close to the border with Bulgaria. Newo u t b reaks continued to be re p o rted throughout July withthe disease spreading eastwards. Officials in Tu rkey arepermitting the use of vaccine to combat the bluetongueo u t b reak but those in Bulgaria are not.

Management steps taken:

1. A ban on the movement and trade of ruminants in andt h rough the affected re g i o n .

2. Mass clinical examinations of all ruminants thro u g h-out the area

3. Treatment of all ruminants, premises and pasture are a sin the area with insecticide against ectoparasites. T h eanimal premises we re treated with an aerosol of insec-ticide. Mechanical cleansing and disinfection pro c e-d u res we re also carried out.

4. Disinfection, insect and rodent control thro u g h o u tthe area. Pa s t u re and forest was treated against Cu l i-coides using an insecticide applied from two heli-c o p t e r s .

5 . Immediate destruction of all diseased animals andtaking of samples.

( S o u rce OIE Disease Re p o rt s )

Australian bat lyssavir u s

The policy for handling Australian bat lyssavirus, espe-cially if a case occurs in a domestic animal, has now beena p p roved by Commonwealth and State Ministers and isa vailable at the AU S V E T P LAN internet site:h t t p : / / w w w. b r s . g ov. a u / a p h b / a h a / a u s ve t . h t m

Exotic Animal Diseases BulletinS e p t e m b e r 1 9 9 9 N o . 7 1