Olympics - Quarantine
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Quarantine is compulsory isolation set up to prevent the spread or introduction of a contagious disease. The word comes from the old Italian word “quarantena”, meaning forty day period.
The aim of all quarantine measures is to ensure that all horses are healthy both when they arrive and depart, and that the good equine health status of Hong Kong is preserved.
The health of the local horses and repatriation of the visiting equines are central to the safeguards being put in place.
Is Quarantine Required Before Travelling to Hong Kong?
Horses must be resident in an AFCD (Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of Hong Kong) approved country for 60 days and must be under veterinary supervision during the 30 days preceding export.
Horses must be held at AFCD approved premises and be certified free from clinical signs of infectious or contagious diseases and external parasites and must be fit to travel. They must be certified for vaccination against Equine Influenza, tested for Equine Infectious Anaemia and other diseases if necessary, their movements must be certified for the previous 60 days.
Horses from about 40 nations will thus observe a seven day pre-export quarantine phase in Aachen, Germany, where the horses will be quartered in the stables of the Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein e.V. (ALRV), which have been approved by the Hong Kong veterinary authorities. No other horses will be allowed within a radius of 100 meters of the quarantine area. They will then be flown out from Amsterdam, which is one of the five approved hubs.
Aachen had already been quarantine site in the run-up of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
What is Post Arrival Isolation?
All horses will spend ten days in Post-Arrival Isolation (PAI) The ten days begin after the arrival of the last horse into the compound; training and competition are possible during PAI under conditions of strict separation between the international sports horses and the resident racing horse population.
