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AVA Supports Inquiry Into Equine Influenza

Author: AVMA
Posted: Tuesday 4th September, 2007. 00:00:00

The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) is fully supporting the federal inquiry into the equine influenza outbreak announced over the weekend.

AVA President Dr Diane Sheehan said that while the crisis is far from over, we will need to know how the disease entered the country and how it spread.

“There is still much to be done and our first priority must be to continue to provide the resources necessary to get this under control, and to help those who need assistance,” Dr Sheehan said. “However, questions will have to be answered about how this breach of bio-security occurred so that we learn from it,” Dr Sheehan said.

“Former Justice of the High Court, Mr Ian Callinan, QC will bring a great deal of experience to an inquiry and we welcome his appointment.

“Just as importantly, we need to look at whether the resources we have available will be adequate in future. From the AVA’s perspective, we are particularly interested to see if the Australian Veterinary Reserve has been adequately resourced. The AVA was instrumental in setting up the AVR as a volunteer force of experts to deal with situations such as this.”

Dr Sheehan said that while any inquiry may discover failures in the system, it is likely to uncover stories of great work by people doing the right thing.

“We are extremely proud of the work veterinarians have done to rapidly diagnose the disease and help to contain any further outbreaks. I expect this inquiry will uncover many unsung heroes.

“Veterinarians have been at the front-line in this battle, and the AVA would expect to be prominent in the consultation process of this inquiry.”

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