Important Survey for Equestrian Competition/Event Organizers and Managers 

In order to assist the Canadian Food Inspection Agency with its effort to eradicate Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) - once commonly referred to as Swamp Fever - and its crippling impact on the Canadian herd, Equine Canada's Competitions Committee supports show organizers requesting proof of a negative EIA test as a condition of entry. Together with the EC Horse Health and Welfare Committee, an EIA fact sheet was developed and circulated this spring to competition organizers recommending this as a best practice going forward.

We have now developed a brief survey in order to provide us with a 'snapshot' of the competitions environment to see how this may be impacting the spread or control of the disease. Feedback from this survey will be utilized by the EC Horse Health and Welfare and Competition committees to develop further disease-prevention guidelines for use by event organizers.

The survey is being sent to all EC-sanctioned competition organizers, as well as to our provincial/territorial sport organizations for distribution to their memberships. To this end, we apologize if you receive duplicate requests to complete the survey (please complete only once), but it is necessary to reach out to as many people across Canada as possible.

Thank you,

Anne Welch, Chair, EC Competitions Committee

Dr. Mary Bell, DVM, EC Horse Health and Welfare Committee