KEY POINTS:
Last year's Melbourne Cup winner Delta Blues and its Japanese stablemate Pop Rock will not return to Australia for this year's race as the country counts the cost of the equine influenza outbreak.
The outbreak has shut down the multibillion-dollar racing and breeding industry since Saturday, costing the
industry at least A$100 million ($116 million) so far.
Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran has banned the movement of horses in a bid to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease, which has infected up to 50 horses so far.
The outbreak has also raised questions over this year's Melbourne Cup, but Mr McGauran could not say whether the event would be affected.
"It's too early to say," the minister told the Nine Network.
"The problem is that these race horses that are going to compete in the distance races through the spring carnival need these preliminary races to get fit so if the race is deferred they obviously don't get that race fitness."
Racing Victoria confirmed the decision of trainer Katsumi Yoshida yesterday, saying it was related to the recent outbreak of equine influenza in Japan and not the current crisis in Australia.
"They've had issues trying to organise quarantine for the horses, so they just said 'look, the way things are going, we'd rather just make a decision now and say that we are not coming'," Racing Victoria operations manager Leigh Jordan told the ABC.
"It's very disappointing but we can understand their circumstances."
Both horses were clear of equine flu but stables had been in lockdown mode in recent weeks as the virus spread around the country.
Meanwhile, MAF Biosecurity in New Zealand is expecting to have collected blood samples from a number of horses at 14 locations around New Zealand by the end of today.
The samples will be tested for equine influenza and results are due early next week.
The 14 locations were chosen because they had horses that had entered New Zealand from Australia within the past 10 days.
A MAF Biosecurity spokeswoman said it was unclear exactly how many horses would be tested by the end of today because it was uncertain how many horses were at each location.
A total of 97 horses have been identified as entering New Zealand from Australia since the beginning of the month. Testing for all of them is expected to be completed in the next one to two weeks, with results available shortly after.
In the meantime, any horses displaying symptoms of equine influenza will be tested immediately.
She said there was no evidence so far that the highly contagious virus, which poses no threat to human health, had entered New Zealand.
MAF has indefinitely banned horse travel between Australia and New Zealand, and tighter checks on passengers arriving from Australia began yesterday.
"In terms of passengers coming through, we have just increased our risk screening so that we will be asking people more questions if they've come from Australia," said the spokeswoman.
"We are not doing anything different, but we will be pulling those people aside if they've been to a farm or been with horses, which is what we would normally do anyway, but we will be questioning them further."
All horse equipment coming in will be disinfected and, if required, passengers could have their luggage or clothing searched or cleaned.
The TAB said yesterday the influenza would not affect racing here. The first case in Australia was found in a stallion at Sydney's Eastern Creek quarantine station, which was immediately locked down on Thursday.
On Friday, recreational horses stabled at Centennial Park, in Sydney's east, were found to be suffering from clinical symptoms.
The wildfire flu
* Horse flu is no threat to human health, but can be spread by human contact with infected horses, and can be carried on clothes, brushes and horse rugs.
* It is highly contagious - the infection rate is almost 100 per cent in populations that have not been previously exposed to the disease.
* It is not usually fatal to horses, but can cause loss of form, which can greatly affect racing careers and stud value. It can kill foals.
* Infected horses usually recover in two to three weeks.
