Indian Trade Ban on the Importation of Equine Breeding Stock from Great Britain
THE THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS’ ASSOCIATION – Outline Briefing Paper
1.Background
Contagious Equine Metritis (CEM) is a sexually transmitted bacterial disease of equidae which is believed to occur widely in the non-Thoroughbred population, and occasionally in Thoroughbreds, in mainland Europe. In the UK CEM is notifiable by law, under the Infectious Diseases of Horses Order 1987. The Thoroughbred Breeding industry in the UK and other larger EU breeding countries such as France, Ireland, and Italy has successfully implemented a voluntary Code of Practice to limit the spread and impact of this disease.
The Code of Practice uses a biannually implemented laboratory accreditation scheme (operated by the independent CEM reference laboratory of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, UK) in order to maintain high standards of detection in laboratories testing for CEMO. The complete absence (zero prevalence) of positive culture results arising year after year from the repeated annual re-testing of Thoroughbred stallions and mares in the UK and elsewhere in Europe before commencement of breeding each year is conclusive evidence for the CEMO free status of this largely independent equine population.
CEM has not been detected in a Thoroughbred horse in Great Britain in the past nine years. Overall the British Thoroughbred Breeding industry prides itself on extremely high levels of horse health due to rigorous implementation of self-imposed and self-funded controls through the Common Codes of Practice and heightened disease surveillance. However, despite these clearly successfully proven preventive measures, this valuable industry continues to be penalised as a result of the positive detection of CEM in single consignments of imported non-thoroughbred horses occurring sporadically over the past nine years. Many of these animals detected as carrying CEMO have been identified as being infected during routine pre-export testing whilst simply transiting the UK from mainland Europe on their way to third countries. As a result they have posed no infectious risk to the remainder of the British horse population from which they have remained quarantined in accordance with export regulations.
Under the current regulations introduced by the Indian Government the UK can only import horses to India if it can show CEM free status countrywide for at least three years continuous duration. The International Office of Epizootics (OIE) Terrestrial Animal Health Code recommends procedures for the safe import of equidae from countries not free of CEM. These procedures focus on pre- or post-export testing of stallions and mares and have been effectively applied for many years by CEM-free countries importing large numbers of horses from Europe.
However, India is continuing to ban the export of all breeding stock, both thoroughbred and non-thoroughbred, from the UK. Whilst there is a health certificate for non breeding stock exported from the UK, this is restricted to colts under seven years of age and fillies under five years of age. Furthermore this certificate is only released on a case by case basis which requires written acceptance from India before the certificate can be issued.
It is widely accepted in both political and industry circles that the reason this ban has arisen is political i.e. because of India’s grievance concerning the non-export of Indian horses to the EU.
2. Loss of earnings to the UK
Historically Indian breeders supported the Tattersalls Breeding stock sales providing a valuable middle to lower end market for British and European breeding stock. Detailed below are figures from Tattersalls’ Sales Company recording the levels of business before the two almost concurrent bans. These published figures are just from one annual sale and do not include all the private sales to India which would significantly boost these figures, plus the effect of Indian purchasers as under-bidders on a number of other horses offered at these sales:
1993 25 horses = £200,119.50
1994 30 horses = £401,625.00
1995 61 horses = £1,080,975.00
1997 21 horses = £277,725
India is a valuable market for Britain in that it traditionally accounts for purchases in the middle to lower market, an area which all British Breeders maintain is the most critical to their survival.
In recent years we have witnessed a massive boom in the Indian economy and their investment in bloodstock has increased in line with this prosperity. Yet the UK continues to lose out on this valuable and growing market to our closest competitors. The TBA drew DEFRA Officials attention to the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Outward Trade Mission to India in 2006/2007 which has subsequently yielded significant results.
In November 2007 bloodstock agents acting on behalf of Indian clients purchased 90 mares at Goffs Bloodstock Sales in Ireland, totaling just under 2,000,000 Euros. The bulk of this trade would have been enjoyed by British Companies if the Government had responded to our requests.
TBA members have questioned why the trade ban does not apply to the whole of the EU, but more perplexing is the fact that all these Irish purchased horses bound for India are exported through Heathrow Airport in London.
3. Political background
The TBA has been raising this issue with DEFRA and the former Horse Ministers and officials since 2003, yet, disappointingly, DEFRA and the British Government seem unwilling to address this problem at the highest level despite support from the European Commission, and the obvious loss of income to the UK industry. Failure to do this has not only destroyed our own Indian export market in thoroughbreds but continues to send a signal to other countries that unilateral action such as this is tolerated by our government.
In 2003 the Indian Society (of thoroughbred breeders) received information from their government that they would reconsider the ban if the matter was brought up at the annual O.I.E. meeting. Their Jt. Sec. & A. Husbandry Commissioner stated that if the O.I.E. notifies them that CEM in non-thoroughbred equine does not mandate a country ban they would reconsider their position. Through the OIE the UK could have sought waiver of this ban subject to more rigorous testing or zoning or any other mutually acceptable procedure mandated and approved by OIE. Yet DEFRA could only respond on that occasion that officials would ‘endeavour to raise the matter when appropriate’.
Due to this lack of support at UK government level the TBA then decided to raise the issue at EU level and sought help from Members of the European Parliament.
Support from the European Commission was amply demonstrated in an answer given by the European Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson, in January 2005 to Charles Tannock MEP who stated that “There is no scientific justification for a country to apply general import restrictions on horses of a particular provenance for which the absence of infection can be demonstrated.”
The Commissioner’s answer also pointed to the lack of action by the British government itself:
“In 1999, at the request of the European Communities, the restrictions on imports into India of horses from the EU were discussed in the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Committee) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). India replied to the questions raised at that meeting by letter of 14 March 2000 stating that since 1977 imports of equidae had been prohibited, with the exception of young horses kept separated from breeding stock, from countries that had reported an outbreak of CEM during the previous three years. The item was again on the agenda of the Community-India Trade Sub-Commission meeting in 2001.
The Commission regularly meets with the Member States to assess outstanding export problems. The most recent was in October 2004, in preparation for the routine meeting in Geneva of the SPS Committee. The issue was not raised by the United Kingdom. Naturally, the Commission would undertake to raise the issue again if requested by a Member State.”
The British TBA has also received support from other EU thoroughbred breeding nations and internationally with support from the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.
Following continued pressure from the TBA, DEFRA issued an invitation to a high level Indian delegation to visit UK in January 2007 (to be funded by the industry itself) to see for themselves the health status of TB breeding stock, and the conditions required by Sales Companies for breeding stock sold in UK. However, despite offering full support and funding the Industry has not received any definite follow through or further information, and this initiative, which had limited prospects of short term success, seems to have totally lost momentum.
4. The way forward
As the TBA has stressed for the past six years, it is vital that the British Government finally take this issue seriously and make a significant effort for a resolution through the OIE.
In parallel, we also propose that DEFRA review the Infectious Diseases Order – with the adoption of a different criteria for thoroughbreds and non- thoroughbreds as per the observations and suggestions of the last CVO Dr Debbie Reynolds as stated at the DEFRA Equine Industry Liaison Meeting last year.
As more border controls are lost and the rise in horses imported and exported within the EU continues, it becomes increasingly unlikely that the UK will enjoy 3 years CEM free within its non-thoroughbred herd. British Thoroughbred breeders incur significant extra testing and other health related costs to maintain a high herd status and are becoming increasingly frustrated with DEFRA promises that work is being done ‘behind the scenes’, yet receiving information from the OIE and Brussels that this issue is practically never raised by officials.
The TBA will, therefore, be campaigning for the matter to be officially raised by the British Government in the annual OIE meeting this year and by an official approach to The European Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson in Brussels, and urges DEFRA to recognize that this anomaly should be prioritized for support at a senior level.