The thoroughbred industry will put its case to vaccinate horses against equine influenza (EI), in the face of strong opposition from government authorities, at a summit in Sydney on Thursday.Australia's first outbreak of EI in August last year shut the multi-million dollar racing industry down in NSW and Queensland for three months and curtailed the breeding season.The state and federal governments maintain that now the disease has been eradicated, vaccination is unnecessary and dangerous becaus

The thoroughbred industry will put its case to vaccinate horses against equine influenza (EI), in the face of strong opposition from government authorities, at a summit in Sydney on Thursday.

Australia's first outbreak of EI in August last year shut the multi-million dollar racing industry down in NSW and Queensland for three months and curtailed the breeding season.

The state and federal governments maintain that now the disease has been eradicated, vaccination is unnecessary and dangerous because it masks the symptoms of EI which could be present in a different form.

Thoroughbred Breeders' Australia (TBA) president John Messara said the experience overseas did not support that theory.

Two international equine disease experts have been enlisted to bolster the pro-vaccination case while Messara will address the summit on the economic impacts of last year's outbreak.

"We managed to contain the loss to a billion dollars, it could have been a lot worse," Messara said.

"It will cost $10 to $15 million to vaccinate the thoroughbred population which the industry is prepared to pay.

"There are billions of dollars invested in this industry and it must not happen again."

Australia and New Zealand are the only countries in the world with significant commercial horse populations that do not vaccinate against EI.

Dr David Powell, an equine epidemiologist based at the University of Kentucky, said the continued global movement of thoroughbreds and performance horses meant vaccination was essential.

"If Australia wants to compete internationally it needs to vaccinate," he said.

"You don't want to repeat the catastrophic events of last year.

"Technology is evolving all the time and we are able to detect outbreaks in vaccinated populations and contain them.

"If an outbreak occurred, it would not mean racing would stop for any length of time."

Veterinarians also are divided on the vaccination issue with the chief vets from the states and the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) against it while Professor Dave Hutchins and Dr Jonathan Lumsden from the Randwick Equine Centre have supported it by contributing to the paper to be submitted to the summit.

"It is a fair assumption that we (vets) are divided over vaccination but a large number support it," Dr Lumsden said.

"The AVA represents all veterinarians who work with all species and the government vets also look after all animals.

"As an equine vet I believe vaccination is important and would certainly reduce the impact of another outbreak."

Dr Jane Axon, president of Equine Veterinarians Australia, a special interest group of the AVA, said her organisation, which represented all horses, was against vaccination.

"The AVA does not support ongoing vaccination and this will not stop another outbreak," she said.

"Only strong and effective quarantine systems can keep this disease out of the country."

The Callinan inquiry into the EI outbreak found the government-run quarantine centre at Sydney's Eastern Creek to be at fault.

Rudimentary protocols were not followed and the disease escaped into the general horse population after most likely being brought into Australia by a stallion imported from Japan.

Tests on samples taken from horses housed at Victoria's Spotswood centre showed the presence of EI in those horses but it did not escape the quarantine station.

Much of the thoroughbred and standardbred population was vaccinated after the outbreak was detected and will be due to receive further inoculations towards the end of the year while the horses which contracted EI have run out of the natural immunity generated by the disease.

The recommendations from the summit will be handed down in November.