UK Yanks Low-Risk Status For Canadian Mares
The UK's Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) has published their 2010 Codes of Practice for prevention and control of equine infectious diseases. As part of these codes, Canada and the US have lost their low-risk status for contagious equine metritis (CEM) because of the large 2008-2009 US outbreak of the disease (the HBLB calls it a US and Canadian outbreak, which isn't actually true). Canada is included presumably because of the number of exposed horses that entered the country (and the number of other unknown exposed horses that could have entered given the scope of the US outbreak) and perhaps the somewhat passive response by federal authorities in Canada.
The loss of low-risk status greatly affects how Canadian mares are handled upon arrival to breeding facilities in the UK, and will create major hassles for people moving horses to the UK for breeding. There's no indication whether this is a permanent change or whether it may be revisited with more information on the status of CEM in North America.
Image source: http://animalphotos.info/a/
