Role of Land Use Patterns in Limiting the Spread of Equine Influenza in Queensland During the 2007 Epidemic
In 2007, an epizootic of equine influenza (EI) occurred in Australia, involving parts of the states of Queensland and New South Wales. Following an extensive control program, the disease was eradicated within 4 months, after infecting more than 75 000 horses on over 10 000 properties. In Queensland, examination of land use patterns revealed that the majority of infected premises (89.5%) were located in one of three land use classes viz. rural residential, residential-unspecified or grazing natural vegetation.