US: Equine piroplasmosis found in 11 states
by: Erin Ryder, TheHorse.com News Editor
Animal health authorities investigating an outbreak of equine piroplasmosis on a South Texas ranch have now located 317 positive horses. These horses include 288 on the index ranch, seven on other premises in Texas, one in Alabama, two in California, five in Florida, one in Georgia, five in Louisiana, one in Minnesota, two in North Carolina, three in New Jersey, one in Tennessee, and one in Wisconsin. All known positive horses are under quarantine, and testing of all epidemiologically linked horses is ongoing.
The information was released in a Nov. 13 report issued to the World Organization for Animal Health (Office International des Epizooties, or OIE) by John Clifford, DVM, deputy administrator of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto
Dear Colleagues,
Well, the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto is upon us, and so is another two weeks of long days and sleepless nights!
While most of the public drama will be in the competition rings, the Royal will also host the most extensive series of meetings of equine Canada's governing committees outside of our annual convention. If you plan to be in the Toronto area, I hope you will take the opportunity to sit-in on the public meetings, to ensure that the decisions are taken under the scrutiny of our members and officers.
I have posted a full list of the meetings here.
If you are not planning to be in the area, you may wish to avail yourself of Equine Canada's new micro-blogging facility, which we have instituted to keep our members abreast of up-to-the-moment developments at major decision-making events. We are currently posting Federation and individual "Tweets" here.
Our micro-blogging initiative is an experiment in the use of social media to foster greater direct participation in the governance of the Canadian equine sector, and we would be grateful for your views on how it might be improved as we refine it.
I hope that I might see you at the Royal, and remain at your disposal if I can be of any assistance to you.
Akaash Maharaj
CEO, Equine Canada
A Message from Michael Gallagher, President of Equine Canada
I am sure most of you have received several messages regarding the changes at Equine Canada and are probably sick of it. Unfortunately, much of the competing information that has been distributed has been inaccurate, distorted, exaggerated and very emotional. Therefore I am going to try and present a short, clear and simple explanation of the planned changes in this message.
When Equine Canada was created about 9 years ago, the intention was that it move from being solely an FEI Sport Organization to an organization that represents all Equestrian enthusiasts across the country. By including provincial equestrian association members, recreational riders, western disciplines, breeds and industry members and part of the racing industry, Equine Canada’s membership went from 9,000 Sport members to somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 people. The problem has been that all of these new members do not pay any type of membership fee to Equine Canada, we do not know their names or how to contact them directly and many of them do not even realize they are a member. Fees from our Sport members provide well over 80% of the total revenue for the organization. They correctly expect that their Sport fees be spent on sport programs. The other 70,000 or so members enjoy “free” membership in Equine Canada. They currently receive some benefits of membership but so far, we have not been able to provide them with the level of services described in our strategic plan.
