The Animal Health Trust said a horse being treated at a stables near Dunfermline, Fife, had tested positive for the illness after travelling extensively through Europe. Vets insist there is a very low risk of the horse being contagious but breeders and owners are being urged to be vigiliant. 

A national outbreak of equine flu earlier this year which was found in both vaccinated and unvaccinated horses caused stables to be closed and horse racing meetings cancelled for almost a week.

The Grand National is due to take place at Aintree racecourse in Liverpool on Saturday afternoon.

The Fife case has been detected at the Steading Livery and Training Centre near Dunfermline which is now on lockdown.

The spokesman said: “All new horses to our yard are placed in quarantine but given the current outbreak and the fact that he was travelling extensively via corporate transportation he was immediately placed in strict quarantine with extensive bio hazard practices in place and only his owner has been handling him.x

The Fife case has been detected at the Steading Livery and Training Centre near Dunfermline which is now on lockdown.

The spokesman said: “All new horses to our yard are placed in quarantine but given the current outbreak and the fact that he was travelling extensively via corporate transportation he was immediately placed in strict quarantine with extensive bio hazard practices in place and only his owner has been handling him.

“We are a small yard and there has been no movement of horses on/off the yard since his arrival.

“We are of course on full lockdown, but would like to stress that despite the very low risk of him being contagious, we will of course continue to monitor all the horses here.”

Equine flu is caused by various strains of the influenza virus that affect the upper and lower respiratory tract of horses, donkeys and mules.

A spokesperson for the Animal Health Trust said the result of tests in the Fife case had come back with a very “low level” result, meaning the risk of the horse being highly contagious was low.

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