KEY POINTS:
New South Wales and Queensland will receive the bulk of the first shipment of vaccinations to combat equine influenza (EI) which is to arrive in Australia this week.
NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said the two states would receive 9500 vials of the vaccine each, while Victoria
would initially get 1000 vials.
Macdonald said the priority was to vaccinate the working horses in NSW and Queensland, particularly race horses and high level equestrian performers.
He said the initial shipment of 20,000 vials would be followed by another 30,000 with a further 100,000 vials in the following weeks.
Macdonald said horses competing at the Victorian spring carnival were the ones who would be given the vaccine in that state.
He said the programme of vaccination would begin as soon as possible and he hoped it would lead the way for some NSW horses to compete in Melbourne this spring.
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'Landys said he was pleased that the two EI-affected states had been given priority.
"This is a floodlight at the end of a long tunnel," V'Landys said.
"We will start vaccinating at Rosehill on Thursday night if we can."
Rosehill is the only metropolitan training centre that remains EI free after Warwick Farm was quarantined on Saturday, a month after Sydney's premier training centre at Randwick was closed down.
However the race meeting programmed for Rosehill on Saturday was cancelled.
Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said some of the additional 100,000 vials ordered from manufacturers in France would be used as boosters after the initial vaccinations.
The leftover vaccines "would be kept for a rainy day", he said, adding it was impossible to guarantee whether horse flu would one day be completely eradicated.
"That is our aim. It is too early to give up on that objective. All governments remain committed to the eradication policy but we're not going to stubbornly cling to it," McGauran said in Melbourne.
"If the scientific evidence in coming weeks shows that it's like trying to hold back the tide then, of course, we will have to vaccinate the wider horse population.
"We're not prepared, however, to concede that the containment battle has been lost."
McGauran said it would be at least two weeks before authorities would know whether the vaccination programme was working and the virus had been contained.
"Within two weeks or thereabouts you'll know whether or not containment has worked. You then begin to look at vaccinating at large - containment and eradication cannot continue indefinitely.
"Full immunity is only possible probably at the three-week mark, after the initial nasal spray.
"Fourteen days later there is a booster then, probably, seven days after that. However, the vets believe that immunity begins to grow from the commencement of the vaccination, but you probably wouldn't want to rely on it.
"Consequently, there is still a very nervous wait for the spring carnival supporters and competitors.
"The vaccine doesn't arrive for a few more days. If full immunity is not possible until about three weeks after that ... nobody should be celebrating or taking anything for granted until the horses actually pass the post on that first Tuesday in November."
" Leading Victorian trainers David Hayes and Lee Freedman said vaccination must be done now.
"I think it is a good idea," Hayes said. "There is nothing to lose and why not be over-cautious.
"The containment theory clearly isn't working."
Hayes said pigeons were likely to be a prime carrier of EI because they pick at leftover feed in bins.
Freedman, who has vaccinated horses before travelling overseas, said he could see no downside to vaccinating horses in training.
"There's always the potential for drama but most get a bit of a spike in temperature for one day," he said.
"These horses will all remain in training whilst being inoculated. We are in big trouble and can get a start by vaccinating."
- NZPA and AAP