22 November 2007

GROOMS SIGNED BUT 'DIDN'T READ EI DOCS'

Jet-lagged grooms signed documents on arrival at Sydney's Eastern Creek quarantine station without reading them, the inquiry into equine influenza (EI) heard.

James Carey, a senior groom who accompanied a consignment of stallions from Coolmore in Ireland on August 8, said delays in the flight had resulted in a trip of around 40 hours and all he wanted to do was get the horses settled and get to bed.

He also said a log book grooms were supposed to sign every time they left and re-entered the station, which is administered by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) was not always used because it could not always be located.

" I recall meeting (station manager) Greg Hankins and signing papers before being given a swipe card and gate key," Carey said.

" After a 40 or 50-hour trip from Ireland, we had problems with the flight and I was very badly jet-lagged, at that point, the best thing you want to do at that time of night is get settled as quickly as possible.

" The book that was supposed to be used for the grooms to sign in and out was kept in the common area of the grooms' quarter.

" There were 15 guys sharing the common room and the book might sometimes be near a cooking pot then might be under six magazines and you might not see it for days."

Carey said although he did not read the quarantine instructions at Eastern Creek carefully, he had spent four years in pre-export and post-arrival quarantine situations and considered he knew what he should do, particularly regarding hygiene requirements.

" I always took showers before I left Eastern Creek," he said.

" Our work is not the cleanest work and as a matter of general hygiene I don't wear dirty clothes when I go out."

Gabriel Walsh, another Coolmore groom on the same flight, said he was too tired to read what he was signing and merely flicked through the papers.

One of the stallions in the shipment was Encosta De Lago, the first horse diagnosed with EI on August 17.

At 7am that morning, Encosta De Lago had an elevated temperature of 38.6 degrees, a slight cough and a nasal discharge.

Carey said he had no experience of EI in Ireland where horses are vaccinated against the virus and did not contemplate that was the cause of Encosta De Lago's illness.

Over the next few days, the horses in the immediate vicinity of Encosta De Lago also showed symptoms.

Temperatures of all the horses at Eastern Creek were routinely taken twice a day and recorded in a diary as well as in chalk on the outside of each stallion's stable door.

Carey said until the outbreak occurred he saw no evidence of AQIS staff taking an interest in the temperatures recorded on the stable doors.

Several plane loads of stallions arrived in Australia in early August from the northern hemisphere including Japan where an outbreak of EI was confirmed in the middle of the month.

Racehorses in Japan are vaccinated against the disease and racing was shut down for a week compared to the long shut-downs in NSW and Queensland where racing has been restricted to locally trained horses in certain areas after the metropolitan training centres in Sydney and Brisbane were quarantined.

The inquiry, headed by retired High Court judge Ian Callinan, is investigating how EI infiltrated the general horse population.