Animal health experts head to Panama for sport horse summit
A summit on the international movement of horses will be held this week (11-13 December) in Panama City. Over 60 government representatives and veterinary and horse experts from 23 countries will be attending.
The summit has been organised by the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) and the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI). It comes at a time when participation in equestrian sport has reached a record high in South America and the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games are on the horizon.
Talks will be held over current import and export procedures and finding new solutions. The current procedures in place do not take into consideration the lower risks of “high-health” sport horses, and which are restricting the growth of top-level equestrian sport in the region.
The experts heading to Panama City will focus on updating their current biosecurity protocols, put in place to protect animal and human populations against the risk of disease spread. In turn this allows “high-health, high performance” sport horses to travel safely and swiftly across borders.
Over 300 equestrian events governed by the FEI have taken place in South America this year, with worldwide competitions growing by 27% since 2008 to more than 3,000 a year.
The clock is also ticking towards Rio 2016, when in 1,336 days South America will host its first Olympic and Paralympic Equestrian competitions.
“Horse sport in South America already has a huge economic impact, creating tens of thousands of jobs and sustaining many industries associated with the sport,” explained HRH Princess Haya, FEI President and OIE Goodwill Ambassador, ahead of the talks.
“In the run up to the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, there will be several thousand more equestrian events across South America but to sustain and promote this growth, horses must be able to move without difficulty across borders to compete while we ensure biosecurity protocols are adhered to.”
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
